Novak Djokovic reached the French Open quarterfinals for the 11th consecutive year, extending his own Open-era record at the tournament.
The top-seeded Djokovic faced his toughest challenge yet this year at Roland Garros but still won rather easily against No. 15 seed Karen Khachanov 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 at Court Philippe Chatrier, taking the last four games.
The stadium’s new $55 million retractable roof was shut because of a heavy downpour.
Djokovic has won all 12 sets he’s played in Paris this year and dropped a total of only 25 games so far. He lost five games in each of his first three matches.
This victory puts Djokovic in his 47th Grand Slam quarterfinal, second only to Roger Federer‘s 57.
Djokovic is seeking a second French Open championship and 18th major trophy overall. Among men, only Federer, with 20, and Rafael Nadal, with 19, have more.
Djokovic will face No. 17 seed Pablo Carreno Busta or qualifier Daniel Altmaier next. The rain prevented their fourth-round match from starting when it was supposed to at open-air Court Suzanne Lenglen.
Earlier, No. 5-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas and No. 13-seeded Andrey Rublev reached the last eight at Roland Garros for the first time.
Tsitsipas won against No. 18-seeded Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 7-6 (9), 6-2, and Rublev beat unseeded Marton Fucsovics 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (3).
Tsitsipas has some treatment for an irritation to his eye at the start of the second set and saved two set points in the tiebreaker.
“I feel irritation in my eye and it happened in my previous matches as well. It’s still a bit irritated, I think it’s red,” Tsitsipas said. “The tiebreak was very tense, the tiebreak was where all the money was. I showed lots of discipline.”
Rublev saved three set points serving at 5-4 down and 0-40 in the fourth set, then won on his second match point when Fucsovics put a forehand into the net.
Serving at 3-2 up and deuce in the first set, Fucsovics was unhappy with a line call given against him. He insisted the chair umpire look from a different angle.
“Come here and check from here, please,” Fucsovics said. “It’s your mistake, man. It’s your mistake, OK?”
The umpire checked, and still upheld the line call.
Two games later, Rublev was unhappy with his racket.
“Don’t understand how they can string so bad like this,” he muttered.
Rublev is a two-time US Open quarterfinalist.
He next faces Tsitsipas, having beaten him on clay in the Hamburg Open final last month.