Djokovic in last 16 after battling past Spaniard Agut

Former champion Novak Djokovic proved the fires are still burning within as he spent nearly four hours battling past obdurate Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut to reach the fourth round of the French Open yesterday.
The 31-year-old Serb is still wrestling with his own game as much as the man across the net, but there was plenty of evidence in his 6-4 6-7(6) 7-6(4) 6-2 victory to suggest he is approaching the form that earned him 12 grand slam titles.
There were the 51 winners and the way he dig himself out of a hole at the back end of the third set.
There was also the explosion of rage which saw him demolish his racket near the end of the second-set tiebreak.
“In these kind of circumstances, sometimes emotions get the worst out of you, you know, or the best out of you, whatever you want to call it,” Djokovic, who is at his lowest seeding (20) in a Grand Slam for 12 years, told reporters.
“At times in my career, these kind of situations, when I would scream or throw a racket, it would kind of wake me up and help me to just kind of free myself from that pressure that is just building throughout the match.”
Bautista Agut was the first to blink in the opening set after the first nine games went with serve.
Djokovic worked his way to 15-40 with some rugged baseline play and converted his second set point.
Thirteenth seed Bautista Agut, playing days after the death of his mother, battled back from 1-4 in the second set, breaking serve when Djokovic missed an easy volley and dragging the set into a tiebreak.
At 6-6, and having already saved two set points, Djokovic took aim at an open court with his forehand but his passing shot flicked the net and bounced wide, provoking the racket-smashing tantrum that earned him a warning.
His new racket looked in danger too when a baseline error allowed the Spaniard to level. When Bautista Agut broke to love to lead 5-3 in the second set, Djokovic was rocking. But the survival instincts that have served him so well throughout his career came to the rescue.
 He broke back, then never looked in danger in the tiebreak, bringing up set points with a flukey netcord that had him casting his eyes to the heavens.
 Bautista Agut faded in the third set as Djokovic marched into the last 16 of a Grand Slam for the 43rd time, second on the all-time list behind Roger Federer.
Meanwhile, German second seed Alexander Zverev saved a match point in coming back to defeat Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur in five sets to reach the French Open fourth round on Friday, while former champion Novak Djokovic made the last 16 of a Grand Slam for the 43rd time.
 World number 29 Dzumhur also served for the match in the fourth set, but Zverev clung on and claimed a 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 7-5 victory.
 Zverev, 21, who is seen as the main threat to Rafael Nadal’s expected coronation as champion for an 11th time, endured a nightmare outing on Court Philippe Chatrier that lasted almost four hours.
 He hit 73 unforced errors, dropped serve eight times and served up seven double faults.  He had to save a match point in the 10th game of the decider before breaking and holding to make the last 16 for the first time where he will face either French 15th seed Lucas Pouille or Russia’s Karen Khachanov.
 The match between Pouille and Khachanov was one of two men’s matches not completed as rain curtailed play at 1910 local time (1710 GMT), before being called off for the evening an hour later with the Russian leading 6-3, 7-5, 1-1.
Meanwhile, 34-year-old Fernando Verdasco inflicted an early exit on Grigor Dimitrov, with the Spaniard winning 7-6 (7/4), 6-2, 6-4 in his 350th clay-court match.
 Bulgarian Dimitrov, a two-time Grand Slam semi-finalist, has still never reached the second week at Roland Garros in eight attempts. “You have to draw the line and, you know, look for the next chapter,” said the world number five.
 Japan’s Kei Nishikori made short work of home hope Gilles Simon as he cruised into the fourth round for the fifth time.
 The 28-year-old, seeded 19 in his first Grand Slam since Wimbledon last year after struggling with a wrist injury, saw off Simon 6-3, 6-1, 6-3. In the women’s draw, Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki eased past Frenchwoman Pauline Parmentier 6-0, 6-3.
 The second seed, a quarter-finalist in Paris last year, will face Daria Kasatkina for a place in the last eight after the Russian beat Maria Sakkari 6-1, 1-6, 6-3.
 US Open runner-up Madison Keys saw off Japanese 21st seed Naomi Osaka 6-1, 7-6 (9/7), setting up a last-16 tie with 31st seed Mihaela Buzarnescu.
 Buzarnescu, a 30-year-old Romanian with a doctorate in sports sciences who had never won a Grand Slam match before this week, downed Ukraine’s fourth seed Elina Svitolina with a shock 6-3, 7-5 victory.