Djokovic reaches Monte Carlo quarters
MONTE CARLO, Principality of Monaco: Top seed Novak Djokovic continued his win streak against US players as he reached the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters with a 6- 3, 6- 0 victory over Taylor Fritz on Thursday.
Two-time tournament champion Djokovic has now won nine in a row over US players since losing at Wimbledon 2016 to Sam Querrey.
The world number one will be playing his ninth quarter- final here from 13 appearances at his home event; the win came a round after he claimed his 850th career victory against Philipp Kohlschreiber this week.
Fritz came to the court after defeating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Diego Schwartzman.
Djokovic turned in a steady performance with a dozen each of winners and unforced errors, while his opponent committed nearly 30 unforced errors in 68 minutes.
Defending champion Rafael Nadal was to play his second match of the pre-Roland Garros campaign when he faced Grigot Dimitrov in a third-round encounter.
Sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas earlier lost 6-2, 1- 6, 6- 4 as Daniil Medvedev continued his run of form.
The Russian winner will next line up against Djokovic after losing to the seed in January in the Australian Open fourth round.
Medvedev increased his leading total of ATP season match wins to 20 as a result of his success as he beat Tsitsipas for the fourth time without a defeat in the series.
“This was a great achievement for me,” Medvedev said. “Everything was perfect today.
“Some wind came up in the second set and I could not get used to it. But in the third, I just worked to put every ball in the court.
“I was pleased to fight back after going a set down in the third set.” — AFP