Third seed and two-time champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia thrashed Juan Pablo Varillas 6-3 6-2 6-2 in the fourth round of the French Open on Sunday. The match lasted for a little less than two hours, as the 36-year-old Serb prevailed without much difficulty.
Djokovic will take on 11th seed Karen Khachanov of Russia in the quarterfinal on Tuesday. He will start as the favourite to win that match as well.
Novak Djokovic toyed with Varillas’ serve:
It was pretty clear from the beginning that Varillas would not be able to trouble a returner of Djokovic’s calibre with his innocuous serve. Djokovic went on to break him twice in each of the three sets played, as the 27-year-old Peruvian could win only 53% of the points on his first serve in the match.
Djokovic, meanwhile, kept coming up with aces at regular intervals with his straight and accurate serves. Quite surprisingly, he faced a break point in the very first game of the match, but bailed himself out with three solid serves.
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Varillas hardly ventured into the forecourt:
Varillas stayed on the baseline for the majority of the match and only ventured into the forecourt when Djokovic forced him to with his sporadic drop shots. The Serb pinned Varillas to the latter’s backhand corner with his inside-out forehand and then finished points with his crosscourt forehand or by rushing the net to hit volley winners.
Djokovic’s crosscourt forehand was his most lethal shot on the day. He kept hitting winners with his forehand, as there was no dearth in supply of short balls to him. The Serb raced to a 4-0 lead in the first set, but Varillas showed a brief recovery by breaking back once and reducing the deficit to 2-4.
The Peruvian hit a few wonderful down-the-line forehands with his backhand during that period to take Djokovic by surprise. However, the Serb then served out the first set and continued to get the requisite breaks of serve to win the next two sets.
It was simply beyond Varillas’ ability to contend with the Serb from the baseline throughout the match. Somewhat surprisingly, he did not have a Plan B either.
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
