Nadal in quarterfinals of Roland Garros for record 17th time

Paris Serbian veteran tennis player and 22-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic made it to the quarterfinals of the French Open on Sunday, taking a step towards the 23rd Grand Slam title.

Djokovic defeated Juan Pablo Varillas of Peru 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in a match played on Court Philippe Chatrier.

Djokovic completely dominated his opponent in a match that lasted just one hour and 57 minutes, hitting equally on both sides of the court. During this, he defeated Huan in straight sets, playing 35 winner shots.

“There was a lot of energy on the court, from the crowd and from myself,” Djokovic said after the win. I enjoyed it. It was my best performance so far in the tournament.

He said on his form, “It (form) has come back at the right time, because I am coming into the second week and obviously playing another quarterfinal. The matches are going to be tough. There are big challenges ahead, but I like the way I’m playing and the way I feel, so I’m ready for a new challenge.”

In the quarterfinals, Djokovic will face Karen Khachanov of Russia, who is coming into the top-eight after defeating Lorenzo Sonego of Italy.

In the match played on Court Susan-Lenglen, 11th seed Khachanov defeated Sonego 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (9-7), 6-1 to enter the quarterfinals. Khachanov had earlier made it to the quarterfinals of US Open 2022 and Australian Open 2023.

Khachanov said after the win, “After the second set was over, I was thinking what I was doing here. He was hitting the ball all around the court, but I decided to fight.”

Sonego started the match strongly and won the first set, while Khachanov also took time to find his rhythm. Khachanov did better in the second set to level the scores at 1-1. In the third set, Sonego took a 4-0 lead but could not maintain his rhythm and fell behind 5-6.

Khachanov took advantage of this to win the set in the tiebreaker. Sonego could not recover from this and was eliminated from Roland Garros after winning only one game in the fourth set.

Meanwhile, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defeated Belgium’s Elise Mertens 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 in the fourth round. The Russian player will now face Karolina Mukova, who defeated Russia’s Elena Avanesyan 6-4, 6-3 in the pre-quarterfinals for a place in the second Roland Garros semi-final.