Novak Djokovic reached yet another quarter-final at the Shanghai Masters after beating Roman Safiullin in straight sets.
There hasn't been a more successful player at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Shanghai than Djokovic, and this year, the Serbian came to the Chinese city to prove that point.
He reached the semi-finals at the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2009, and since then, he reached at the least the semi-finals every time until 2019 when he lost in the quarter-final to Stefanos Tsitsipas.
He won four trophies in that time span, which is the most anyone has ever won on a tennis court in Shanghai. This year, he returned to the city after five years, and he's been performing like he's never left.
In his first match, the Serbian struggled against Alex Michelsen, but like the great champion that he is, he found a way to win in two sets, both of which ended in a tie-break.
Then, he outplayed Flavio Cobolli in the third round before taking on Roman Safiullin, who bested Frances Tiafoe in a match that ended with the American player cursing the umpire. It was a brutal three-hour match that ended late, and it might have impacted the Russian's chances against the 24-time Grand Slam champion.
As Djokovic himself admitted, he benefitted from Cobolli's exhaustion in the previous round, and the same could be said also about his fourth-round match against Safiullin.
That, however, doesn't take any credit away from the 37-year-old. He played as well as he needed to, and nothing could stop him from earning a victory only in an hour and 13 minutes.
He had the first break point of the match already in the second game, but he couldn't use it. On top of that, Djokovic then faced two break points in the fifth game, but he saved both to make it 3-2 for himself, after which his opponent tied the score at 3-3.
That was also the last time that Safiullin added to the scoreboard in the first set, as the four-time Shanghai Masters champion went on to win three games in a row to win the first set of the match 6-3.
Djokovic continued his streak of games won also in the second set, breaking his opponent in the opening game of the second set to establish a quick 2-0 lead.
He then faced another break point but once again saved it, this time starting a run of nine consecutive points won, which earned him another break of serve and already a two-break lead.
This was, of course, enough for such and experienced player, as Djokovic cruised towards a victory without any major issues, winning the match 6-3, 6-2 to reach his 10th consecutive Shanghai Masters quarter-final.
Up next, the Serbian legend will play against talented Jakub Mensik, who eliminated Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round of the tournament.
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