Novak Djokovic continued his Roland Garros campaign with a solid win over Diego Schwartzman to secure the quarter-final stage of the event.
Djokovic arrived in Paris on the back of winning the Italian Open, where he largely looked like the favorite to win. The Serbian didn’t have to challenge his rival Rafael Nadal, as the Spaniard was out of the event relatively early.
His rival in the final of the ATP Masters 1000 event ended up being Stefanos Tsitsipas, but that’s not a very good matchup for the Greek player, and Djokovic was able to win that match without too many problems.
That showed that he’s playing on a really high level at this time which makes him a favourite for the Roland Garros. He certainly backed that up on the courts with some really strong showings at the French Open so far.
His opponent in the fourth round was Schwartzman, a very solid player who is capable of playing some superb tennis on clay. The Argentine never had much luck against some of the best in the world and Djokovic was no exception.
While the rallies were enjoyable for the crowd, and the matchup was competitive, the scoreline indicates that it was never really close. The opening set, in particular, showed early that it wasn’t going to be a happy day in the office for Schwartzman.
He lost it 1-6, and while he did recover some level in the next sets, it wasn’t that competitive once more. Djokovic won the second set 6-3 and the final set 6-3 as well to secure another straight-sets victory.
The matchup was a problem for the Argentine, as Djokovic was ready for anything Schwartzman tried. The Argentine isn’t the toughest hitter and doesn’t have the strongest serve, which made it hard for him to win points.
There is only a finite amount of points he could win against Djokovic from the baseline, and he didn’t win enough in this match. The Serbian, on the other hand, will be happy to advance and get another step closer to another major title.