Djokovic cruises into Belgrade quarters; Kerber, Pliskova advance
BELGRADE: Novak Djokovic bounced back from his shock early defeat by Dan Evans in Monte Carlo last week with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Kwon Soon-woo to reach the Serbian Open quarter-finals on Wednesday.
The world number one, warming up for the start of the French Open next month, will face fellow home hope Miomir Kecmanovic in the last eight in Belgrade.
It was plain sailing for Djokovic, whose loss to Evans was his first of the season, as he won in only an hour and 10 minutes.
The 33-year-old’s Australian Open triumph earlier this year took him within two of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s joint all-time record of 20 Grand Slam men’s singles titles.
He will be bidding for a second Roland Garros crown when the clay-court major gets underway on May 30, having suffered a straight-sets thrashing by old rival Nadal in the 2020 final.
Djokovic cruised into a 6-1, 5-2 lead against world number 85 Kwon without facing a break point.
The South Korean broke the top seed when he served for the match, but Djokovic quashed any hopes of an unlikely comeback by breaking to love to secure a comfortable win.
PLISKOVA, KERBER SAIL: Former world number ones Karolina Pliskova and Angelique Kerber came through their first-round matches in Stutgart on Wednesday with differing experiences as both played their first clay-court matches this season.
Pliskova, 29, had to dig deep ater losing the second set to German Tamara Korpatsch before sealing a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 victory.
The Czech Republic star, currently ninth in the world, admited struggling before seting up a second-round match against Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko on Thursday.
Pliskova is on course to meet world number one Ashleigh Barty of Australia in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Barty, the top seed, makes her first appearance later against former Stutgart champion Laura Siegemund in their second round tie.
Earlier, three-time Grand Slam winner Kerber breezed into the second round, sweeping aside Georgia’s Ekaterine Gorgodze in a 6-2, 6-2 victory.
The 33-year-old, who has dropped to 26 in the world rankings, expects a “tough match” on Thursday against fourth-seed Ukranian Elina Svitolina, who has won all of their last six meetings.