Nole had to fight nearly three and a half hours (3h21) to win this victory a little against the current of the game he managed to produce.
Broken and led 4-3 in the second set, the 34-year-old Serb found the means to come back to the score and push to the decisive game in the last two sets, which he won not without trembling.
Djokovic lost his first meeting of the year on clay last week in the Principality against the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich, future finalist.
By his own admission, Djokovic hopes to accumulate matches on clay in order to get closer to his best form by Roland-Garros.
"Clay requires more time spent on the pitch, in training and in matches. I hope I will play more matches than in Monte Carlo," he said on Monday.
Welcomed as a hero by an ebullient crowd, the man with twenty Grand Slam tournaments won started the game very badly, giving up his service twice in the first set.
Djokovic appeared heavy-legged, always a little behind on the balls and often out of breath.
His first game in front of his home crowd, in his hometown, confirmed his lack of matches.
It was the Serb's 5th meeting on the circuit since his defeat in the semi-finals of the Masters in mid-November 2021, he who could not play the Australian Open or the Masters 1000 of Indian Wells and Miami due to his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid.
In the quarter-finals he will face another Serbian player Miomir Kecmanovic in great shape and who, at the start of the afternoon, defeated the Australian John Millman in two sets 6-4, 7-6 (5).
© 2022 AFP