Novak Djokovic celebrates profitable his spherical of 16 match towards Britain’s Cameron Norrie.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Novak Djokovic eased into the Italian Open quarter-finals on Tuesday after breezing previous Cameron Norrie 6-3, 6-4, though there was rigidity with the Briton after the highest seed was hit by a smash.
The Serb has reached the final eight in every of his earlier 16 appearances within the Italian capital and he did once more on Tuesday, getting previous Norrie on centre court docket to arrange a conflict with Holger Rune.
It might be a rematch of final yr’s Paris Masters remaining, when the younger Dane gained his first Masters 1000 title by beating Djokovic in an exciting match.
“Even though he’s really young, I know his game quite well. He’s been on the tour now for last few years playing some great tennis, particularly in the last I would say six to eight months,” mentioned Djokovic.
“He’s in very good form and I look forward to a challenge. I think it’s going to be a very physical match.”
Djokovic is gunning for a seventh title on clay in Rome and his possibilities have been made just a little bit simpler by the shock elimination of Carlos Alcaraz on Monday.
Alcaraz, who gained two consecutive tournaments at Barcelona and Madrid, will take world primary spot from Djokovic on May 22 however it’s the 22-time Grand Slam champion who might go into Roland Garros with yet one more title beneath his belt.
Djokovic gained the primary three video games towards Norrie and closed out the primary set with little fuss, while not having to be at his greatest.
The 35-year-old then took the second set to 2-1 with a break, however within the subsequent recreation Norrie broke again whereas angering Djokovic with a smash which hit him on the again of his left leg.
Norrie had the entire court docket to put the ball away as Djokovic had given up on the purpose and was strolling again to the service line.
Norrie raised his hand to apologise however on the changeover after the Briton moved to 3-2 Djokovic gave him one other lengthy beady-eyed stare as he handed him.
And after Djokovic sealed victory along with his second match level he gave Norrie a cursory handshake on the web, whereas avoiding eye contact and exchanging no phrases along with his dispatched opponent.
Djokovic later defined that he had been irritated by Norrie’s on-court behaviour because the begin of the match, doing “things that we players know in the locker room it’s not fair play”.
“He’s very nice guy off the court, so I don’t understand this kind of attitude on the court, to be honest. But it is what it is. He brought the fire, and I responded to that,” mentioned Djokovic.
“I’m not going to allow someone behaving like this just bending my head. I’m going to respond to that. That’s all it is. What happens on the court, we leave it on the court, and we move on.”
Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Lorenzo Sonego 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) in a third-round match which was suspended on Monday due to the rain, and can tackle one other Italian in Lorenzo Musetti within the final 16 on Tuesday night time.
Iga Swiatek took her Rome profitable streak to 14 matches with a 6-3, 6-4 success over Donna Vekic.
World primary Swiatek will tackle Elena Rybakina within the quarter-finals after coming by way of the hardest match of her event to this point.
Her bid for a 3rd title in as a few years has been boosted by seeds two to six all being eradicated.
