Novak Djokovic and Gael Monfils were meeting for the 20th time on Thursday at the Brisbane International presented by Evie.
The top seed from Serbia made it 20-0 in the pair’s ATP H2H series with a 6-3, 6-3 second round victory at the ATP 250 event in Queensland.
En-route to the quarter-finals, Novak converted all three break points he earned during the 72-minute clash, and saved the only break point he faced.
“We’ve been playing for many years. I’ve known Gael since I was 15. We played quite a bit at juniors and on Tour and I have a good score against him, but we had some incredible battles,” Djokovic said. “He is one of the best, if not the best, athlete in our sport over the years. Incredible flexibility, agility and speed. He is such a great player to watch and a great character and attracts fans around the world to stadiums so tons of respect to him and hopefully we can play some more before we both retire.”
Match statistics: aces (5-4), double faults (1-4), winners (10-17), unforced errors (16-30), total points won (59-41).
For a place in the last four, Novak will play against Reilly Opelka (USA, ATP no.293) on Friday. It will be their first career encounter.
You can download Nole’s desktop calendar for January 2025 here.
Photo: Profimedia
