In a briefly, frighteningly reminiscent scene, Novak Djokovic stretched out his proper arm to return a serve in his French Open fourth-round match towards Russian Karen Khachanov. Djokovic received his racket on the ball, but it surely careened instantly right into a service linesperson’s mask-covered face.

Fortuitously, the linesperson seemed to be tremendous. Djokovic checked on the official sitting throughout from the service line, and play continued.

“My gosh, it was very awkward déjà vu,” Djokovic mentioned in apparent reference to his U.S. Open fourth-round default final month. “I’m truly looking for the linesperson and see if he’s OK as a result of I noticed he had just a little little bit of a bruise, like redness, in that place within the head the place the ball hit him. I hope he’s tremendous. I imply, he positively handled it in a really robust and courageous means.”

The highest seed Djokovic went on to comb the 15th seed Khachanov 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, advancing to the quarterfinals with out dropping a set in 4 matches. He subsequent will get 17th seed Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain or 186th-ranked German Daniel Altmaier.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Males | Girls | TV Schedule

The one foe to defeat Djokovic in 2020 was his personal mood.

On this similar fourth spherical on the U.S. Open final month, Djokovic struck a ball in a minimum of frustration, arguably anger, after having his serve damaged (by Carreno Busta). The ball struck a linesperson within the throat, although it was not his intention. He was defaulted from the match for what occurred, given he struck a ball exterior of in-match play that hit an official.

Djokovic was at no fault for what occurred Monday, when a well-placed serve gave him little management over his return shot. These items occur.

“Clearly due to what occurred in New York, individuals I assume are going to make the story out of this,” he mentioned. “It has occurred to me and to many different gamers within the final 15 years that I’ve been on the tour. I’ve seen it quite a bit when the ball ricochets from the racket and the body, hits somebody within the stands, or somebody that’s near you or line umpire. Yeah, it was a really awkward scenario clearly.”

Djokovic continued a march to what might be a showdown with Rafael Nadal in a Sunday closing. The Serbian goes for his 18th Grand Slam singles title, which might transfer him one behind Nadal and two behind male file holder Roger Federer.

Nadal eyes a 13th French Open crown, which might tie him with Federer within the whole main titles rely for the primary time since they each had zero.

Earlier Monday, No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece and No. 13 Andrey Rublev superior to play one another for the second time for the reason that French Open started. They meet in a Wednesday quarterfinal, 10 days after they performed in a clay-court closing in Hamburg, Germany, on the identical day that play began at Roland Garros.

The Tsitsipas-Rublev winner might play Djokovic within the semifinals.

Within the ladies’s draw, two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova made her first French Open quarterfinal in eight years. She will get 66th-ranked German Laura Siegemund.

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Novak Djokovic into French Open quarterfinals after temporary linesperson scare initially appeared on NBCSports.com