World number one Novak Djokovic has booked his place in the last eight of the Australian Open with victory over Gilles Simon.
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Defending champion Novak Djokovic fended off a tricky threat in form of Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-1 7-5 7-6(6) while Gilles Simon displayed a “perfect performance” against Argentina’s Federico Delbonis 6-3 6-2 6-1 to set up the clash with the best player in the world. The world No. 1 had an easy work in the first set, but had to dig deep to finish off the Italian in a match that lasted for two hours and 21 minutes.
Four-time champion and third seed Roger Federer plays Belgium’s David Goffin later on Sunday, with the victor playing Tomas Berdych.
“Playing someone like Gilles, you face a lot of balls coming back”.
“It’s always a bad feeling when you lose in five”, 31-year-old Simon told reporters.
Williams won 26 matches in a row at the majors last season, capturing the Australian, French and Wimbledon titles and reaching the semifinals at the U.S. Open before a stunning loss to Roberta Vinci ended her run for the season slam.
Djokovic, 28, was pushed all the way by the Frenchman, clinching a 6-3, 6-7, (1-7), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in a contest that lasted over four and a half hours.
Djokovic has not won five titles at Melbourne Park without being able to negotiate a scrap, however, and despite a string of fluffed drop shots he reasserted his authority in the final set to reach the last eight for a 27th successive grand slam.
Centuries are celebrated across the train tracks at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but not in the unforced errors column at Rod Laver.
A man in the crowd yelled out during the post-match, on-court interview that Djokovic should give up on the drop shots some of which were incredibly ill-advised against Simon and contributed to the most startling statistic of the match.
“We played in London and he kind of destroyed me”, he said.
Serena Williams set up a quarter-final showdown with Maria Sharapova.
Two breaks were enough for Djokovic to win the first set but the 10-time major champion spurned 11 break points in the second before winning the tie-break 7-1.
The turning point came when Djokovic broke for a 3-1 lead in the fifth set, fighting back after Simon had skipped 40-0 clear.
When the member of the crowd repeated “no more drop-shots”, the Serb shrugged and replied: “I hate to say it, but you’re absolutely right”.
It was Berdych’s fourth win in six meetings with Bautista Agut, who upset former US Open champion and 12th seed Marin Cilic to reach the round of 16.
It was the third time this tournament that matches have been interrupted due to medical situations in the stands.
In the fourth set, Simon continued to frustrate Djokovic’s attempts to kill off the match as the Serb’s tally of errors continued to mount.
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“He’s a counter-puncher, probably one of the best if not the best on tour… credit and congratulations to him for a great fight and I wish him all the best”.
