In an enjoyable evening match on Philippe-Chatrier Court, no.2 seed Novak Djokovic proved too strong for 19th seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
The world no.2 secured his place in the second week of the 2017 French Open with a 7-6 (5), 6-1, 6-3 victory over the Spaniard in two hours and 27 minutes on Sunday.
Novak converted seven of 10 break point chances, having saved five of eight break points he faced. The defending champion is into the quarter-finals on the Parisian clay for the eighth straight year.
Djokovic came back twice from a break deficit in the opening set, before prevailing in a tie-breaker 7-5.
Riding the momentum, the 30-year-old Belgrade native stormed to a 4-0 lead in the second set, and broke the Spaniard once again in the seventh game for two sets to love advantage.
After saving a break point in the first game of the third set, Novak converted his chance for a 2-0 lead. His opponent broke back straight away and held to level the score. The 12-time Grand Slam titlist made another break in the sixth game and served it out three games later, improving his ATP H2H record against Ramos-Vinolas to 4-0.
“I just didn’t start out of the blocks the way I wanted,” said Djokovic. “He started very solid, not making errors and just spinning the ball well, getting a lot of balls back. There were a lot of breaks and rebreaks in the first set. But it was very close. It could have gone either way and I’m just glad that I managed to win that tie-break, because after that I started playing with more freedom and more confidence. The second and third went really well. I thought especially in the second I did things very well from the back of the court. I mixed it up and didn’t give him any comfort zone on the court. I always made him guess, which was one of the keys.”
Match statistics: aces (3-3), double faults (0-2), winners (34-28), unforced errors (30-37) total points won (111-87).
Awaiting Novak in the last 8 will be sixth seed Dominic Thiem (5-0 H2H record) who lost only five games in a straight sets win over Horacio Zeballos.
Photo: Getty Images
