BEVERLY HILLS, October 05, (THEWILL) – World No. 1 and top seed at the French Open, Novak Djokovic was in supreme form as he wasted little time in racing past the Russian Karen Khachanov to a place in the last eight. The fourth-round match ended 6-4 6-3 6-3 and the Serbian never looked like losing with his confident display.
Djokovic was totally dominant as he has been throughout the tournament so far. He continued his serene progress with this win over the 15th seed.
There was a moment of scare during the game that THEWILL saw as frightening reminiscent of what got Djokovic disqualified at Flushing Meadows. In returning a big serve from the Russian, Djokovic’s deflected return hit struck a line judge. Unlike that other time though, this was entirely accidental and the player was quick to apologise. The official was okay and the match continued.
Even if it appeared as if Djokovic lost no sweat in knocking out the Russian, the top seed was the first to admit how tough his opponent was.
In his post-match interview, he was candid. “It was definitely a closer match than the score indicates,” he admits. “It was quite even but I managed to break his resistance towards the end of each set. Karen was very solid. If you play later in the day with the roof closed, there’s no bounce at all, so he could pick the ball up with his big weapon – the forehand. You cannot allow yourself to drop focus or go too wild on your shots, because someone like Karen is going to take his chances.”
He triumphed over Khachanov in a time of two hours and 23 minutes and will next face the winner of the tie between Pablo Carreno Busta, a semi-finalist at the US Open last month, and the German Daniel Altmaier.
ALSO READ: Djokovic To Drop Ranking Points, Prize Money Following Disqualification From US Open
THEWILL recalls that Busta was Djokovic’s opponent the day he was disqualified in the US Open for hitting the ball at a line judge. It will be an exciting reunion were the two of them to meet again at Roland Garros.
About the Author
