Djokovic, 29, swept past seventh seed Tomas Berdych 6-3 7-5 6-3 as he bids to win his first title at Roland Garros and complete the career Grand Slam.
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Djokovic, seeking a first French Open title to complete a career Grand Slam, was 4-1 ahead of Bautista Agut in the third set when play was halted due to rain on Tuesday.
Novak Djokovic was lucky to escape being defaulted and Austrian tyro Dominic Thiem provided plenty of entertainment as they finally caught up with the bottom half of the men’s draw by setting up a cross-generational semi-final.
Defending champion Williams also overcame the terrible spring weather and her spirited opponent Yulia Putintseva 5-7 6-4 6-1 to move within two matches of becoming the joint winningest player in grand slams in the Open Era.
Defending women’s champion Serena Williams also advanced to the quarter-finals with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and, like Djokovic, will have to play four matches in a row should she reach the final.
Williams holds the record, at 33 years and 289 days, as the oldest female grand slam victor – something she achieved at Wimbledon last year for her 21st grand slam title.
She will play Kiki Bertens in the last four on Friday, after the unseeded Dutch player saw off Swiss eighth seed Timea Bacsinszky 7-5 6-2.
Only a few hundred shivering spectators felt able to courageous a gloomy Court Suzanne Lenglen – which can seat more than 10,000 – to watch 13th seed Thiem’s racket skills.
World No.1 and raging French Open favourite Novak Djokovic admits he got lucky after going perilously close to being disqualified from the tournament following a careless racquet toss which narrowly missed a linesman.
Also in the semifinals: Andy Murray, who knocked out Richard Gasquet on Tuesday; and defending champion Stan Wawrinka, who eliminated Albert Ramos-Vinolas also on Tuesday. Coming out in the wash, two men eyeball a semifinal set for Friday, while Djokovic and three other men await quarterfinals set for Thursday with only hopes of Friday semifinals. I don’t find a straight-sets victory over Ferrer to be all that convincing anymore as the Spaniard is clearly trending downward on tour.
The world No 1 will meet the victor of the other quarter-final between Dominic Thiem and David Goffin – weather permitting.
He led 5-2 in each of the first two sets and got broken while serving for both at 5-3.
Djokovic leads their young rivalry 2-0 but Thiem manufactured 15 break points in two sets when they played at the Miami Open in March.
Spain Garbine Muguruza will take on Sam Stosur of Australia in the other semifinal, both having won their quarterfinals on Wednesday.
“So it is happiness to win, to go to the quarter-finals for the first time, I’m going to enjoy it now”. Now he came within inches of risking disqualification because he let his emotions get the better of him on court. It’s good to bring a little bit of positive energy in these grey days’.
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“Obviously players are playing until much older age than they used to be playing”.
