PARIS : Novak Djokovic said riding a bicycle around Paris was a little more eventful than his routine victory over home player Corentin Moutet to reach the French Open third round on Thursday.
The 38-year-old Serb, bidding for a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title, barely needed all his gears as he rolled past Moutet 6-3 6-2 7-6(1) and afterwards told reporters that he had spent part of the previous day on two wheels.
“I have done some bike rides in the past in Paris, but I haven’t done one in a while,” he told reporters.
“Roland Garros was kind enough to gift me a bicycle, so I used it yesterday for the first time. We were kind of trying our luck a little bit with that roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe.
“To be honest at one point we had cars all over the place. It was quite an adrenaline experience, but I don’t think I will repeat that. We were crazy enough to get into that roundabout.
“It was fun but at one point but also a bit dangerous. It’s great. It’s great to see Paris from, you know, from the bicycle. I think it’s just more fun.”
Djokovic, who warmed up for the French Open by winning his 100th career title in Geneva, has been untroubled in two rounds so far although he did have to deal with blistered feet.
“It took me almost an hour to deal with the blister and the bleeding that I had,” he said.
“So they had to use the injections and draw the blood out and then inject something to dry out the blister. So that was not really a pleasant process.
“But I don’t think it’s going to be an issue for me to recover. Good thing about slams obviously you have a day in between.”
Up next for Djokovic is Austrian Filip Misolic.
