Hot, dirty, cunning, gruelling – welcome to the tennis rally in Paris

For 293 minutes the venerable hero tussles with time, irrelevance, a beaten-up body and a rival 20 years his junior. Novak Djokovic has 24 Grand Slam titles, Joao Fonseca is 19 years old. Wisdom eventually buckles to youth but not before they fence, spar, tease, torment each other for five sets.

Of 331 points, 19 are aces, two are double faults, the rest are rallies. Terse plots, drawn-out plans. Brutality, subterfuge. One 21-shot one ends with a rat-a-tat exchange at the net. Applaud me, the winner of it demands from the crowd.