Novak Djokovic avoided a potential banana skin as he defeated Roberto Bautista Agut in the fourth round of the US Open on Sunday.
After cruising through the opener, Djokovic then lost his first set at Flushing Meadows this year and produced an extremely angry response by stamping on his racket.
He soon regained his cool to move back ahead and eventually claimed a 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-3 victory to book his place in the quarter-finals for the 26th Grand Slam in a row.
Djokovic will now face 18th seed Feliciano Lopez in the last eight in New York after the Spaniard got the better of Italy’s Fabio Fognini 6-3 7-6 6-1.
The top seed is a massive 1.01 favourite for the match while Lopez is the 13.00 underdog.
The victor will go on to play either Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or defending champion Marin Cilic. Tsonga is currently the 1.61 to make it through to the last four with his opponent at 2.25.
After Sunday’s match, Djokovic was full of praise for his opponent, praising his battling spirit and tenacity.
He also admitted he lost his cool after going down in the second set but believes his experience of being in similar situations in the past helped him.
“Congratulations to Bautista for hanging in there, for fighting. It was a great match,” Djokovic said. “It was a very physical match.”
“Obviously at that moment it wasn’t easy, but I managed to regroup and use the experience of facing these particular situations before in my life, knowing what to do next.”
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