Novak Djokovic continues to chase his dream of winning the Olympic title missing in the outstanding his career, beating German Dominique Köpfer 7:5, 6:3 in an hour and 37 minutes of play in the round of 16 in Paris, BTA reported.
So Djokovic, who is number 1 in the scheme due to the absence of Yannick Siner, will play in the next phase with Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, who is certainly the strongest on red courts.
Djokovic had difficulties only in the first set, as the two exchanged a break each and it was 5:5. With this result, the Serbian took the lead and then broke the German to avoid the uncertainty of the tiebreak.
In the second set, Djokovic took a quick 3-0 lead and then calmly maintained his lead for the final 6-3.
Köpfer was better on aces - 7 to 5 and both made 19 winning shots, but Djokovic messed up less and logically had a big advantage on returns.
In the other early match, Tsitsipas prevailed over Argentine Sebastian Baez 7:5, 6:1 in a little over an hour and 20 minutes on court. The match started better for Baez, who made an early breakthrough to take a 2-0 lead. However, Tsitsipas quickly returned the breakthrough and equalized for 2:2. A new break followed for Baez, who at 5:4 was serving for the first part, but the Greek managed to defend himself, equalized, and then won all the games until the end for 7:5.
In the second set, Tsitsipas' superiority was great, as he led 5:0, before Baez registered a game against his name, but it all ended in the seventh part - 6:1.
Stefanos Tsitsipas had 5 aces to 2 for the Argentinian, as well as 16 winners to 12. The Greek was better on first serve points as well as on returns.