Novak Djokovic also safe in the round of 16

One or the other complained about this and that, but after seven days we can stick to the French Open: The top favorites don’t let anything burn in the first three rounds.

After Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem, Novak Djokovic also made it into the round of 16 on Saturday without losing a set. The top seeded Serb beat the Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan (ATP 153), who had lost in qualifying to Henri Laaksonen and came up as a lucky loser, 6: 0, 6: 3, 6: 2. Djokovic, who meets number 15 seed Karen Chatschanow in the round of 16, has only given up 15 games so far – three fewer than Nadal and 13 fewer than Thiem.

For the third time Djokovic made a lightning start, for the second time he won the first set to zero. The only thing that caused a stir was that the new roof on Court Philippe-Chatrier was closed too late when it started raining. The game therefore had to be interrupted unnecessarily in the second set for 25 minutes and sand had to be poured on one half of the court.

Korda, Altmaier and Gaston surprise

This year’s round of 16, which will take place on Sunday without Swiss participation, present themselves in a remarkable national diversity. For men, players from twelve different countries are represented, for women 13. In the men’s tableau, Sebastian Korda and Daniel Altmaier mix two qualifiers and Wawrinka’s conqueror Hugo Gaston, a player with a wildcard from outside the top 200 in the world.

In the women’s category, two qualifiers also made it into the last 16 (Nadia Podoroska, Martina Trevisan). More than half (9) of the remaining players are unset. The favorite Simona Halep has only given up twelve games so far. Only her next opponent, the Polish Iga Swiatek, got through the first rounds (13 games) as smoothly.