Aleksandar Kovacevic did loads of tossing and turning Sunday evening earlier than lastly settling in for what he thought was about six hours of stressed sleep.

He had good purpose to be nervous. Kovacevic, who’s 24 years outdated and the world’s 114th-ranked participant, had a midday tennis date within the first spherical of the French Open with Novak Djokovic, the winner of twenty-two Grand Slam singles titles.

The solely particular person with a extra daunting task maybe was Flavio Cobolli of Italy. Cobolli, who’s 21 and ranked 159th, survived the qualifying match final week, solely to be rewarded with an opening-round confrontation with Carlos Alcaraz.

It didn’t go so nicely for both of the unknowns.

Nine video games and roughly 35 minutes into Cobolli’s match, an Alcaraz forehand sailed lengthy and Cobolli let loose a scream, swung his racket in celebration and let a smile unfold throughout his face. He pumped his fist to the group as he walked to his chair. He had lastly received a recreation in opposition to the perfect participant on this planet, who was taking part in like, nicely, the perfect participant on this planet.

“I did the best I could,” Cobolli mentioned.

Kovacevic, who misplaced to Djokovic, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6(1), had a reasonably good thought of what that felt like, too, though he lasted greater than two hours on the court docket with a participant he grew up idolizing.

“There was some points, passing shots that he hits, and they’re just points where I feel like I had no chance sometimes,” Kovacevic mentioned. “And those are definitely humbling.”

It is a truism of tennis that the highest gamers hate taking part in the primary spherical of a Grand Slam. Anything however a cruise to victory is trigger for concern. Also, there’s all the time the opportunity of epic failure within the type of a loss to somebody few have heard of.

Whatever discomfort Djokovic and Alcaraz might have felt strolling onto the courts at Roland Garros on Monday, they principally managed it with ease, particularly Alcaraz. He made an early contribution to the match spotlight reel, curling a backhand across the web submit for a winner early within the second set. Djokovic had extra of a exercise, and even misplaced his serve late in his match after getting windblown clay in his eyes.

It helped that the celebs drew opponents with three digits of their rankings whose current expertise didn’t have a lot in widespread with their very own. Kovacevic had a very winding journey to his date on the French Open’s middle court docket with Djokovic.

His father, Milan, immigrated to America from Serbia to pursue a doctorate in pc science from U.C.L.A. His mom is from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kovacevic grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, about 500 yards from the inexperienced clay of the Central Park tennis complicated.

In ninth grade, he nonetheless wasn’t adequate to play singles for Beacon High School, a public college in Midtown, though he was spending afternoons coaching on the John McEnroe Tennis Academy on Randall’s Island.

Things began to click on after he left Beacon to coach in Florida whereas taking courses at dwelling. At a match one summer time, he performed a prime junior who was planning to attend the University of Illinois. His opponent instructed him he ought to be part of him on the college, so he did, though he didn’t have a lot curiosity in school. By the time he completed 5 years later, he was ranked within the low 400s and figured he would give professional tennis a shot.

Since then he has principally been taking part in within the tennis hinterlands, although he did win a match in the principle draw of the distinguished Miami Open in March.

“It has not been the most glorious over the last couple of years,” he mentioned.

On Monday, Kovacevic made his Grand Slam debut in opposition to Djokovic on the principle court docket at Roland Garros, Philippe Chatrier, although it wasn’t his first time assembly Djokovic.

That occurred on the U.S. Open when he was 6 and his Balkan-proud dad and mom introduced him to look at the 18-year-old Djokovic win an early-round match, lengthy earlier than Djokovic was the participant he would turn out to be. And two years in the past he warmed up Djokovic on the U.S. Open after coming inside a degree of qualifying to play.

He has the pictures to prove it, and he has tried to include components of Djokovic’s recreation into his personal. His squat as he waits for an opponent’s serve — knees large, chest up, racket out entrance — has loads of Djokovic in it, even when the remainder of his recreation isn’t fairly there but.

“Where I am in my career, like it shouldn’t be so crazy to me that I’m playing some of these guys,” he mentioned. “But, you know, the little kid in me, I’m standing in Chatrier in front of a packed crowd, playing the best player to ever pick up a racket. It’s something that you got to take in for a second, but also push away and try to focus and play.”

The approach Alcaraz has began his profession, he might ultimately have one thing to say about who’s the perfect participant to select up a racket. Everyone in tennis is aware of this, together with Cobolli, who has additionally spent most of his transient profession within the sport’s model of the minor leagues.

He was in an elevator, nonetheless feeling good about qualifying for his first predominant draw Grand Slam match, when he checked out his cellphone and noticed that his opponent was Alcaraz. He mentioned he closed his eyes, ran his hand by his hair, and thought, “Oh no.”

Roughly, three-quarters of an hour into the match, it was going as he dreaded it would. Alcaraz couldn’t miss and later mentioned he felt “invincible,” like he would by no means lose a recreation. Cobolli barely had time to breathe between pictures.

The scoreboard mentioned 6-0, 2-0.

“He was playing incredible,” Cobolli mentioned.

On the intense facet, there’s nothing the French crowd loves extra — aside from a French participant — than rallying behind a participant who’s getting blitzed. And by the point Cobolli acquired his legs below him, knotting the third set at 5-5, the group of almost 10,000 on the Suzanne Lenglen court docket was chanting his identify. It was like he was one in all their very own, particularly after he saved three match factors and broke Alcaraz’s serve to attract even within the set.

“I felt important on the court,” Cobolli mentioned.

The last rating was 6-0, 6-2, 7-5, the elapsed time 1 hour, 57 minutes.

Now that Cobolli has seen up shut what the perfect seems to be like, he mentioned he understands higher what he should do to compete — hit the burden room, he mentioned with a smile as he pushed in at his chest along with his hand. And get higher at tennis.

Hope springs everlasting for him because it does for thus lots of the Kovacevics and Cobollis within the recreation. Just over two years in the past, Alcaraz’s rating had three digits, too.