Djokovic ready to put in homework on unknown quantity Caruso

Novak Djokovic is ready to put in more work off the court after sealing a third-round meeting with Salvatore Caruso at the French Open.

Top seed Djokovic eased past lucky loser Henri Laaksonen on Court Suzanne-Lenglen on Thursday, having also seen off Hubert Hurkacz in straight sets in his opening match.

The Serbian had not faced either player before and will also meet qualifier Caruso for the first time as he looks to become just the second man to hold all four major titles on two separate occasions.

"I don't know much about him [Caruso], to be honest. It's really interesting, it's the third match in a row that I get to play against someone that I have never faced before in a match," said world number one Djokovic.

"But that's good, because there is a shift of generations and new players coming up. Again, I'm going to have to do my homework, do analysis on him.

"I watched him play a little bit today when I was waiting for my match. I saw he came from qualifying. He has won five matches now, so there is a lot of confidence. He has nothing to lose.

"I'm sure he's going to be very motivated to play his best. We are going to hopefully play on one of the big stadiums and have a great match."

Sharing the love. @DjokerNole takes a little over 90 minutes to defeat Laaksonen 6-1 6-4 6-3 to reach the third round. #RG19 pic.twitter.com/Hf03MFN4JA
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 30, 2019

Djokovic endured a dismal two years between completing his career Grand Slam at Roland Garros in 2016 and losing to Marco Cecchinato in the 2018 French Open quarter-finals, but he feels he is now back to his best.

"It's still early in the tournament, but I do have high ambitions for this tournament. Grand slams are the tournaments where I want to play my best, and hopefully get a chance to fight for the title," said Djokovic.

"I have played finals on several different occasions at Roland Garros and had that memorable title in 2016. Since then a lot has happened. I was absent from the tour for six months. I had elbow surgery and changed the racquet, and various transformations happened in my career.

"But I have gotten, I feel like, to a place where I was hoping I would get with my game. I worked very hard for it. I think everything started to really function well from Wimbledon last year. That was a huge springboard and confidence boost for what was coming up.

"Winning slams is quite a different feeling from anything else. It really puts your name in the history books of the sport, and it just serves as a huge confidence boost for any other tournament or the rest of the season."