The three-time Roland-Garros champion scored the 99th win of his career on the Paris clay after beating Austrian qualifier Filip Misolic 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to enter the fourth round of the French Open.
Fresh off his 100th tour level singles title in Geneva just prior to Roland Garros, Djokovic is now eyeing the milestone of 100 match wins at a single tournament for the first time — a mark he can achieve if he defeats former top 10 player Cameron Norrie on Monday.
The only player to have earned more wins at Roland-Garros than Djokovic is 14-time champion Rafael Nadal, who owns a 112-4 record, and the Serb has not lost before the quarterfinals in Paris since 2009.
The Serb faced just one break point against the 23-year-old qualifier ranked No.153, who had previously upset 27th seed Denis Shapovalov en route to his first-ever Grand Slam third round at just his second major.
Bopanna-Pavlasek bow out after pre-quarter loss
Rohan Bopanna and his Czech partner Adam Pavlasek put up a spirited fight but were knocked out of the French Open on Sunday by second seeds Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten.
The unseeded Indo-Czech duo fell 2-6, 6-7(5) in the pre-quarterfinals to Finland’s Heliovaara and Britain’s Patten, who are ranked third and fourth in the world, respectively.
Bopanna started strong in the second set, holding serve to love. Patten responded equally well, firing in a series of sharp, angled serves.
Meanwhile, Yuki Bhambri is set to play his third-round match alongside American partner Robert Galloway. They face the ninth-seeded American pair Christian Harrison and Evan King.
In the Junior Championship, India’s promising young player Manas Dhamne exited the tournament after a 5-7, 3-6 defeat to fellow qualifier Ronit Karki of the United States.
Paul reaches first QF with win over Popyrin
Tommy Paul broke new ground on Sunday at Roland Garros, where he reached the quarter-finals at the clay-court major for the first time.
The American earned battling five-set wins against Marton Fucsovics and Karen Khachanov earlier this week but found the going easier against Alexei Popyrin, dispatching the Australian 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in one hour and 52 minutes as per ATP.
Paul has now reached the last eight at three of the four majors, advancing to the semi-finals at the Australian Open in 2023 and the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2024. The 28-year-old is just the ninth American man in the Open Era and only active American to advance to Grand Slam quarter-finals on all three surfaces.
Svitolina beats Paolini and reach quarters
Elina Svitolina summoned up her Ukrainian fighting spirit to battle from the brink of defeat and beat last year’s runner-up Jasmine Paolini 4-6 7-6(6) 6-1 to book a place in the French Open quarter-finals after an entertaining match on Sunday.
Victory came the hard way for Svitolina, who saved three match points in the second set to force a decider in which she raised her level to earn a last-eight encounter with defending champion Iga Swiatek, who later beat Elena Rybakina.
Fourth-seeded Paolini twice swapped breaks with Svitolina before holding to love in the ninth game of the match and pouncing to claim the opening set with a scorching forehand winner in the next game.
The diminutive Italian grabbed a 3-1 lead in the second set but 13th seed Svitolina did not let her challenge fade on Court Philippe Chatrier as she recovered two breaks and saved two match points to make it 5-5 before forcing a tiebreak.
The 29-year-old Paolini responded bravely after going 4-1 down and wasted another match point as Svitolina went on to level the contest and pump her fists to loud cheers, before using the momentum to get her nose in front in the decider.
Svitolina pulled away by winning four games in a row before her opponent got on the board and she promptly completed the victory with a searing backhand winner to reach the quarter-finals of Roland Garros for a fifth time.
The plight of her war-torn country following Russia’s 2022 invasion of its neighbour was firmly on Svitolina’s mind as she reflected on her battling victory in a press conference later, saying she had to live with difficult news almost daily.
Australian’s 18 and committed 15 fewer unforced errors (22-37) than the World No. 25, according to Infosys Stats.