New York (AFP)
World No.1 Novak Djokovic qualified without problem Tuesday for the quarter-finals of the Masters 1000 from Cincinnati, relocated to Flushing Meadows, at the expense of American Tennys Sandgren 6-2, 6-4.
One week before the start of the US Open, of which he will also be the big favorite, in the absence of Rafael Nadal, who gave up because of the coronavirus, and of Roger Federer recovering (knee), the Serbian is slowly gaining strength .
After entering the piano contention the day before against the Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis, "Nole" did not drag on the Grandstand by pocketing the first set in just over half an hour after having delighted the service of his opponent already forced to carry out long rallies.
Sandgren, 55th in the world, constantly suffered the match by breaking again at the start of the second set, but did not give up, delaying the defeat as best he could as on his commitment to 5-3 against him where he was able to erase 4 match points with the help of Djokovic at the fault, surely in too much of a hurry.
The Serbian finally closed the case on a shutout, to then thank the crowd absent from the four stands, as he had greeted 1 h 27 min earlier when entering the court.
He will meet in the quarterfinals the German Jan-Lennard Struff, 34th in the world, winner of the finalist of the previous edition, the Belgian David Goffin.
© 2020 AFP