When it comes to night shifts, nobody does it better under the bright lights in New York than Novak Djokovic.
Novak Djokovic is now the king of the night sessions after setting the record for the most night match wins at the US Open with 37 following his straight-sets victory over Croatian qualifier Borna Gojo. In the first week, Djokovic won a pair of night matches against France's Alexandre Muller and fellow Serbian Laslo Djere.
After being taken the distance by Djere, Djokovic prevailed in five sets in one of the latest night matches that he'd ever been part of, finishing past 1 a.m. local time. But stressing the importance of his rest and recovery before his next match, it was a great way to bounce back against the dangerous Gojo.
The big-serving Croat had not lost a set in the main draw, authoring upsets over American Mackenzie McDonald and Djokovic's bogey opponent Jiri Vesely to earn a date with the second seed. But Gojo could not keep up his consistent serving from the first week against the world's greatest returner.
Djokovic created as many as 13 break points and converted five of them. His high-quality returns forced Gojo to go for more on his second serve and he yielded eight double faults including five in an error-strewn game in the early part of the second set.
Djokovic eased into the quarterfinal of the US Open for the 13th time, tying former greats Andre Agassi and Roger Federer with the second-most behind only Ivan Lendl with 17. He will next face American Taylor Fritz.
The 36-year-old has also reclaimed the World No. 1 from Carlos Alcaraz during the tournament by virtue of his first-round win, and will officially take over when the new rankings are updated at the end of the tournament next week.
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