Top seed Novak Djokovic moved a step closer to obtaining the only major title to elude him in his career as he beat Dominik Koepfer 7-5, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals at the Olympics in Paris on Wednesday.
The 37-year-old, whose lone Olympic ,medal remains a bronze from Beijing in 2008, was tested hard in a tense first set but an early break in the second helped him wrap things up in straight sets.
He will now play Stefanos Tsitsipas after the Greek saw off Sebastian Baez of Argentina 7-5, 6-3.
“It was very, very humid again,” Djokovic said. “I just hope it rains so it can cool down a bit. But you have to accept it and embrace it and try to make the best of it.”
Djokovic is the first man to reach the quarter-finals or better at four Olympic Games but he had to dig a little deeper than he might have expected.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion was relatively untested in the previous round by Rafael Nadal but found Koepfer a tricky customer early on. The German was pummelling winners and surprised Djokovic when he recovered an early break to level at 3-3.
On another scorching day at Roland-Garros, the left-hander looked set to take the set to a tiebreak only to falter as Djokovic broke to finish it off 7-5.
That seemed to knock the stuffing out of Koepfer and an early break allowed Djokovic to establish a 3-0 lead, an advantage he never looked like conceding. Djokovic maintained the lead through to the end, closing out victory with the minimum of fuss.
Eighth seed Tsitsipas reached the quarter-finals of the Olympics for the first time with a similarly impressive victory.
The Greek, beaten in the third round in Tokyo three years ago, came through a tough first set and then cruised through the second, like Djokovic, to claim his place in the last eight at the expense of Baez.
