Thursday 25 February 2016

Tennis:Novak Djokovic clocks up his 700th career win at Dubai Championships

Novak Djokovic  sealed a landmark victory in the second round
Novak Djokovic claimed his 700th career win as he swept aside Malek Jaziri to reach the quarter-finals of the Dubai Championships.

The world No 1 raced to a 6-1 6-2 victory, moving up to 12th on the all-time list which is headed by American Jimmy Connors, who racked up 1,254 wins in his career.

Djokovic is the third active player to pass the milestone, following Roger Federer (1,067) and Rafael Nadal (775), and he will take on Feliciano Lopez in the last eight.

Tomas Berdych maintained his consistent record in the tournament after reaching the quarter-finals with a win over Thomas Fabbiano.

The Czech, a two-time finalist, has reached at least the semi-finals in four of the last five years and he extended this year's run with a 6-2 6-2 win over his Italian opponent.

Berdych thundered down eight aces and converted five of his 10 break points as he sealed victory in 74 minutes.

The third seed will next face in-form Australian Nick Kyrgios, who closed out a 6-3 6-2 win over Mikhail Kukushkin.

Kyrgios collected his first Tour title in last week's Marseille Open and needed just over an hour to defeat his Kazakh opponent.

Fourth-seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut also made swift progress, sweeping aside Korean teenager Hyeon Chung 6-0 6-1.

And there were few scares for second seed Stan Wawrinka, who overcame qualifier Franko Skugor of Croatia 7-5 6-1.

Skugor was playing his first tour level match in six years and proved a dogged opponent in the first set, but Wawrinka upped his game after securing it with a break in the 12th game and sprinted through the second set to seal a quarter-final clash with Philipp Kohlschreiber.

No comments: