Novak Djokovic on Tuesday cruised into the quarter-finals of the US Open that put him just nine sets away from completing the calendar-year Grand Slam.
The top-seed Serbian endured a gruelling showdown under the lights against the World No. 99 Jenson Brooksby as he survived a physically draining early scare against the American by 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in two hours and 58 minutes.
In a rematch of the Wimbledon final, Djokovic will next meet sixth seed Matteo Berrettini. The Italian earlier defeated German qualifier Oscar Otte in four sets.
Having already been taken to four sets by Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune and Kei Nishikori this campaign, it was the third time in four matches he dropped the opening set and the eighth time in 25 Grand Slam matches this year he has done so and recovered to win. No other man in the Open Era has matched the feat, as per atptour.com.
"Brooksby is a very young, very talented player," Djokovic said on court after the victory, as per usopen.org. "I told him at the net that a very bright future is ahead of him. Definitely, he's a great player."
"Jenson was pumped, he had a clear game plan, he was executing all the shots very efficiently, and I was really on my back foot," Djokovic said of his slow start. "I didn't have the rhythm, made a lot of unforced errors and he was reading the play very well for about a set and a half."
( With inputs from ANI )
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