At first it looked like a long evening in Paris – but then Novak Djokovic made short work of Fernando Verdasco.
The duel between Djokovic and Verdasco was highly anticipated by many – and in the beginning this seemed justified: 29 minutes they fought for the first three games up to 2:1 for Djokovic. Then the Serbian managed the break and he pulled up his match confidently from the front, while Verdasco – handicapped by bubbles – eased off considerably.
After only 2 hours and 25 minutes of play, Djokovic made it into the quarter-finals, 6:3, 6:4, 6:2 in the end, even though Verdasco came back in the second round after a break deficit, but immediately played a weak service game.
“I’ve made some tactical changes to my game,” explained the 12-time major winner. “I knew it would be a difficult match, Fernando had a lot of confidence because of his victory over Dimitrov. But I was very focused.”
This is the 12th time that Djokovic has reached at least the quarter-finals of the French Open, where he will meet David Goffin or Marco Ceccinato.