Date: 28 May-11 June Venue: Roland Garros, Paris |
Scope: Live text and radio commentary of selected matches on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, the BBC Sport website and app |
Novak Djokovic showed his superior quality to defeat Peru’s Juan Pablo Varillas and reach the 17th French Open men’s quarter-finals.
The Serbian third seed, 36, won 6-3 6-2 6-2 on Roland Garros clay and moved ahead of Rafael Nadal to claim sole ownership of the last-eight record.
Djokovic also wants to overtake Nadal by winning the record 23rd Grand Slam men’s singles title.
The two-time champion will next face Russian 11th seed Karen Khachanov.
Khachanov, 27, reached his third straight Grand Slam quarter-finals with a 1-6 6-4 7-6 (9-7) 6-1 victory over unseeded Italian Lorenzo Sonego.
Spain’s top seed Carlos Alcaraz, seen as Djokovic’s main rival for the title in the absence of injured 14-time champion Nadal, will face 17th seed Italian Lorenzo Musetti later in the Sunday
A drama-free afternoon for Djokovic
Drama is likely to follow Djokovic to a Grand Slam and, after he risks simmering political tensions in the Balkans by write a slogan about Kosovo at the start of Roland Garros, he admitted that he got more drive from the controversy.
A physical third-round match against Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina also provided a talking point, leading Djokovic to say after his no time to name his “long list” of injuries.
But the straightforward nature of beating Varillas meant it was a drama-free afternoon for the Serb.
Djokovic started with a thrilling double fault and faced a break point in the opening game, saved it with an ace and then took the Peruvian’s serve in the next game to open up a 4-0 lead.
Varillas took one of the breaks back in the fifth game, getting a chance with a bullet backhand winner on the second serve from the Serb.
In windy conditions on Court Philippe Chatrier, Djokovic continued to have issues with his ball toss and had to stop Varillas from getting the set back on serve by saving another break point before holding to 5- 2.
During that play came the only real part of the theater.
Djokovic was mocked by the French fans for a harmless gesture of frustration after a Varillas winner for 30-40, advancing with the strength of the Peruvian’s refusal and then, with a smile on his face, held his ear in his hand to the crowd. .
Varillas, who is ranked 94th in the world, almost quit the game in 2016 to return to university full-time and the decision not to retire has paid dividends in his best run at a major.
He is the first Peruvian to reach Roland Garros in the last 16 since Jaime Yzaga in 1994, but could not match his compatriot by reaching the Grand Slam quarter-finals.
Djokovic, who won the Coupe des Mousquetaires in 2016 and 2021, has only lost once on Paris clay to a player outside the world’s top 50 – Italy’s Marco Cecchinato in the 2018 quarter-finals.
After breaking early in the second set, he couldn’t finish with another upset and quickly wrapped up the win to reach his 14th straight quarter-final at Roland Garros.