Super Serb Novak Djokovic enters record 12th Roland Garros quarter-final; also posts his 200th win on clay
Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates his victory over Spain's Fernando Verdasco during the fourth round match at the French Open in Paris yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
Novak Djokovic reached a record 12th French Open quarter-final yesterday with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win over Spain's Fernando Verdasco. Djokovic, the 2016 champion and 12-time Grand Slam title winner, has now also reached 40 quarter-finals at the majors. The Serb, seeded at 20 this year after a year of struggles with an elbow injury and mediocre form, will face Marco Cecchinato stunned eighth seed David Goffin 7-5, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3. Verdasco, 34, had knocked out fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets in the third round. However, his hopes of beating Djokovic, 31, for the first time in eight years weren't helped by a badly blistered left foot which needed treatment before the end of the second set. Yesterday's win was also Djokovic's 200th on clay courts.
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Incredible Zverev at it again
German second seed Alexander Zverev claimed his third successive comeback win at the French Open to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final yesterday, edging Russian Karen Khachanov in five sets. The 21-year-old played some stunning tennis in the closing stages of a dramatic 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 fourth-round victory and will next face Dominic Thiem who reached a third successive quarter-final in Paris by seeing off Japan's Kei Nishikori 6-2, 6-0, 5-7, 6-4.
World No. 38 Khachanov has now lost at the last-16 stage at Roland Garros twice in a row, while Zverev ended his wait for a maiden major last-eight appearance at the 12th attempt.
German dreams in Paris
"Well, I'm young, so I might as well stay on court, get some practice and entertain you guys," smiled Zverev, who is bidding to become the first German man to win the French Open since 1937. "Me and my brother are guys that spend three, four hours a day in the gym, lifting heavy weights, on the treadmill. It paid off today."
Austrian seventh seed Dominic Thiem, the only man to defeat 10-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal on clay this year, admitted that with his 25th birthday fast approaching, it was high time he finally claimed a Grand Slam title after years of under-performing.
At the Australian and US Open and Wimbledon, he has never managed to get beyond the fourth round. As a result, and after years of being tipped as the heir apparent to Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic, he's in danger of becoming overtaken by the widely-touted NextGen, whose leader Zverev he meets on Tuesday. "I think for me it's time to move on to make a great step, because I'm turning 25 (in September). I'm not that young anymore," said Thiem.
Thiem, ranked at eight in the world, once famously trained carrying tree trunks on his back to build up his body mass. There is no doubt that he also has tennis stamina. It took Djokovic and Nadal — who were to be the eventual champions — to stop him in the Roland Garros semi-finals in 2016 and 2017. For the second straight year, he is the only man to have defeated Nadal on clay prior to the French Open.
Thiem, the feared one
This year, Thiem ended the 10-time French Open champion's 21-match and 50-set clay court win streak in Madrid. That was the first set Nadal had dropped on clay since also losing to Thiem in Rome 12 months earlier. Thiem admits that trying to make a Slam breakthrough during the same golden era as Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray has been particularly challenging. However, he has often been his own worst enemy with some serious black marks on his majors record. At the Australian Open this year, he was dumped out in the fourth round by American world 97 Tennys Sandgren. At Wimbledon in 2016, he exited in the second round with Czech Jiri Vesely, ranked 64 at the time, delivering the killer blow.
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