Novak Djokovic, defending champion, qualified without trembling for the quarter-finals of the Masters 1000 in Paris by dismissing Russian Karen Khachanov (6-4, 6-1) in 1h27 on Thursday.
The Serb, in search of a seventh coronation at Bercy, will face the young Italian Lorenzo Musetti (23rd) to try to climb into the last four.
Thursday, he inflicted on Khachanov an eighth defeat, the seventh in a row since the Russian beat him in the final of the 2018 edition of the Paris indoor tournament.
"
The two rounds were completely different
," he said.
In the second, I felt good, physically too.
But in the first, I was like this, like that.
I had a lot of opportunities on his serve, but we were very close until the last point in the first set.
Then I relaxed and took over.
»
His next opponent, Musetti, is more effective on clay than hard, but he was able to "
adjust his game to this surface
", underlined Djokovic.
As proof, the Italian beat in the 8th Thursday the finalist of Roland-Garros and the US Open, Casper Ruud (4th), 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
"
Tactically I know what I have to do, but I'm not going to talk about it, come tomorrow to see
“Launched Djokovic.
Deprived of the American summer tour by his decision not to be vaccinated against Covid-19, and thus of competition for more than two months after his title at Wimbledon in July, the 35-year-old Serb is on a series of eleven won matches. consecutively since returning to the circuit at the end of September.
He successively won the Tel Aviv and Astana tournaments before coming to Paris.
The former world No.1, currently 7th, is qualified for the Masters at the end of the year (November 13-20 in Turin) thanks to his coronation at Wimbledon.