Novak Djokovic will be playing in the quarterfinals of the 2023 Roland Garros after beating Juan Pablo Varillas.
After overcoming a difficult third-round clash against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, the 36-year-old played against Juan Pablo Varillas from Peru, who had to play three five-set matches on his way to the fourth round of the competition.
It was the first meeting for the two on the ATP Tour and Djokovic wanted to use the fact that his opponent was exhausted to his advantage. The third seed also faces a 'new reality' with small injuries troubling him, but he already learned how to overcome that.
The Serb had a superb start to the match, breaking his opponent twice in the opening four games, leading 4-0 and 30-15 early on. However, his opponent showed his qualities, breaking back and even having a break point to recover both breaks at 4-2, 30-40.
Yet, Djokovic eventually saved the break point to finish off the first set with a hold to fifteen and win it 6-3. The second set was much more dominant from the Serb as he avoided a small slump and this time, dominated from start to finish.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion broke in the first and fifth games, and despite not adding another break in the seventh game when he had another break point, he managed to win the second set comfortably 6-2.
Djokovic was able to break his opponent twice more in the third set, while not facing any break points, and win the match 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in only two hours and 59 minutes to reach his 17th Roland Garros quarterfinals.
Surprisingly, by doing that, he set the record for most quarterfinal appearances at the tournament. Rafael Nadal, who is a 14-time champion in Paris, played in the quarterfinals 'only' 16 times and since he's not able to attend this year's event, the Serb got a chance to break his record.
In the quarterfinals, Djokovic will face another difficult challenge, this time against the 11th-seeded Karen Khachanov. If he wins, he'll most probably meet the first-seeded Carlos Alcaraz in the most anticipated match of this year's tournament.
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