Novak Djokovic came roaring back from a set down to defeat Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard and avoid a first-round exit at the French Open.

Drawn to face the big-serving, six-foot-eight Frenchman in Paris, Djokovic always looked likely to be tested in his Roland-Garros opener, but he stood up to the challenge to emerge a 5-7 7-5 6-1 6-4 victor in two hours and 51 minutes.

Perricard's booming serves and power in the return game caused Djokovic issues right from the off.

Although the 24-time grand slam champion initially served well himself, Perricard broke in the penultimate game of the first set.

The 22-year-old needed four break points to do so, but after he finally got the opener under his belt, Djokovic showed signs of being frustrated both with the vocal support for his opponent and with a couple of the umpire's calls.

The second set was a similar slog, but this time, it was Djokovic's turn to get a late break at the fourth attempt as he staved off the threat of a tie-break.

Buoyed by levelling the scoreboard, Djokovic encountered few issues in a 25-minute third set, but the fourth set was a different matter.

The players exchanged breaks in the opening two games and Djokovic did show signs of fatigue in what was only his second clay-court match of the year.

But a break in game seven gave the Serbian – who celebrated his 39th birthday on Friday – a chance to serve out the contest, and he produced a wonderful cross-court winner on match point before dancing in front of the Court Philippe-Chatrier crowd.

Dance the night away #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/R7Kr0riPIU

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 24, 2026

While Djokovic avoided falling at the first hurdle, Taylor Fritz was not so lucky as the seventh seed lost 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (9-11) 6-1 to fellow American Nishesh Basavareddy, who earned his first top-10 win on his main-draw debut at Roland-Garros.

There were also victories for Joao Fonseca – who could meet Djokovic in the third round – and Jakub Mensik, both against French opponents, in Luka Pavlovic and Titouan Droguet, respectively. 

Data Debrief: Djokovic frustrates French crowd

Djokovic is now 39-1 against opponents at their home grand slam events, with his only such loss coming against Andy Murray in the 2013 Wimbledon final.

He has a win rate of 97.5% in such matches, and across the Open Era, the only players to feature in at least 10 such contests and boast a better win ratio are Jannik Sinner and Juan Martin del Potro (both 100%). 

This was the first time Djokovic had lost the opening set of his first-round match at the French Open since 2008 against Dennis Gremelmayr, when he also won in four sets.

And he will now face another Frenchman, Valentin Royer, in the second round.