The ‘amazing’ player who beat Novak Djokovic to reach the Roland Garros semi-finals but has now fallen to 380 in the ATP rankings

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It is no mean feat to beat Novak Djokovic at a Grand Slam tournament, including Roland Garros where he is now a three-time champion.

Djokovic is a 24-time major winner, but has not won a Grand Slam tournament since the 2023 US Open.

At his most recent Grand Slam tournament, Djokovic retired against Alexander Zverev in the Australian Open semi-finals due to a leg injury.

The Serbian has since returned to action, but Djokovic has not won another match after suffering a shock defeat at Indian Wells.

Marco Cecchinato beats Novak Djokovic to reach 2018 Roland Garros semi-finals

Defeats are not something that Djokovic has been used to over the years, with perhaps one of the most surprising coming against Marco Cecchinato at Roland Garros in 2018.

Cecchinato had never won a Grand Slam main draw match prior to that tournament and was the world number 72 at the time.

However, he had found some form on the clay prior to Roland Garros that year, winning his first ATP Tour title at the Hungarian Open.

After knocking out two top seeds in Pablo Carreno-Busta and David Goffin, Cecchinato set up a quarter-final match with none other than Djokovic.

Although they had never played a competitive match against one another at this point, the pair were familiar with each other as occasional practise partners.

Despite being the huge underdog, the Italian overcame the odds and beat a seemingly hampered Djokovic, 6-3 7-6(4) 1-6 7-6(11).

After the match, Cecchinato described winning match point as the greatest moment of his life upto that point.

“I had a lot of courage, especially toward the end of the tiebreaker,” Cecchinato told his press conference. “I was cool. Clear-headed. My heart was beating 1,000 mph. It wasn’t easy. My hand was even shaking a little.”

He added, “When I saw my return hit the line it was the best moment of my life.”

On the other hand, Djokovic was cast with the overwhelming disappointment of defeat, but still had some generous words for his opponent.

“Marco played amazing and credit to him. Congratulations for a great performance,” said Djokovic. “He held his nerves amazingly well in important moments. I struggled from the beginning. Unfortunately, it took me time to get going, and I struggled with a little injury at the beginning.”

Cecchinato saw his dream run come to an end in the semi-finals when he lost to eventual runner-up Dominic Thiem, while Djokovic would go onto win the next three Grand Slam tournaments.

What happened to Marco Cecchinato after Roland Garros in 2018?

Cecchinato would go onto win two more ATP titles on clay, enabling him to reach a career-high ranking of world number 16 in February 2019.

However, outside of reaching the Roland Garros semi-finals in 2018, Cecchinato’s Grand Slam record leaves something to be desired.

In-fact he has never won a Grand Slam match at any other tournament other than Roland Garros and has an overall win percentage at majors of 30%.

The last time that Cecchinato appeared in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament was at the 2023 US Open that Djokovic won.

Cecchinato has struggled with injuries in recent years, and is now playing on the ATP Challenger Tour after dropping down the ranks to world number 380.

In an interview with Palermo Today at the end of last year, Cecchinato hinted that he could retire at the end of 2025 if he does not make serious improvements on this.

When explaining his drop off in form, Cecchinato suggested that he may have been a bit complacent after reaching his peak.

“I had to train a lot, maybe there was a bit of laziness, so I try to explain those unexpected results,” Cecchinato explained. “I had reached too high a level and at that point maybe I could have called a super coach like Max Sartori. Here, he would have helped me in managing those moments. 

“I had reached the top of the world rankings and I had a lot, too much, pressure. And when you are at certain levels as soon as you are not at the top, it happens that you cannot stay at the top and you go down.”