{"id":8151,"date":"2026-05-29T14:32:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T14:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/8151\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T14:32:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T14:32:19","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-and-novak-djokovic-channel-michael-jackson-in-latest-dance-rivalry-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/8151\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic channel Michael Jackson in latest dance rivalry chapter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic have turned Roland Garros into more than a Grand Slam chase with their latest light-hearted exchange.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The pair have shared funny interactions before, and the tournament\u2019s social accounts have leaned into their backstage dance battle on the famous stairs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">After round one revived the rivalry, round two brought a bold theme. Both stars went old school by turning to Michael Jackson songs.<\/p>\n<p>Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic take dance battle into Michael Jackson mode<img alt=\"Photo by Ray Tang\/Anadolu via Getty Images\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ba7bf238f8ba80c382baf5061c918f71.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo by Ray Tang\/Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Roland Garros has been fuelling the playful contest between Sabalenka and Djokovic, with the second round pushing the joke into full pop icon territory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Djokovic performed Billie Jean in his own style, then backed himself immediately by shouting: \u201cCan\u2019t beat that. No chance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Sabalenka was not ready to concede. She warned: \u201cRound two, Novak? We are doing old school? Watch this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Belarusian then mimicked parts of Michael Jackson\u2019s iconic Thriller choreography, keeping the rivalry alive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Djokovic plays Brazilian prospect Joao Fonseca this Friday in the round of 32, a match that could bring another celebration if he advances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Sabalenka is also due back on court tomorrow against Daria Kasatkina, giving Roland Garros another chance to extend the staircase storyline.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">For Djokovic, the fun comes with real opportunity. Carlos Alcaraz is injured, Jannik Sinner has been knocked out, and several top names are already gone in the French Open.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">That leaves Djokovic with one of his clearest recent chances to chase another Grand Slam, while still finding time to entertain backstage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic have turned Roland Garros into more than a Grand Slam chase with their&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[217,3877,271,407,272,3797,139,220],"class_list":["post-8151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-aryna-sabalenka","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-backstage-dance","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-daria-kasatkina","tag-getty-images","tag-michael-jackson","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-roland-garros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}