IT took 3 1/2 hours, a cut on his hand and a delay to remove fans, but world No. 1 Novak Djokovic defeated Matteo Berrettini in the quarterfinals of the French Open on Wednesday to set up another date with Rafael Nadal.
The top-seeded Serbian defeated the ninth-seeded Italian 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-5 in three hours, 28 minutes in a match that was interrupted when the 5,000 fans at Roland Garros refused to leave Court Philippe Chatrier in adherence of a curfew that was put in place.
Djokovic and Berrettini were asked to leave the court in the middle of the fourth set while the fans were cleared.
Djokovic lost his footing and cut his hand after play resumed.
“This match had it all: falls, crowd, break. It was a lot of intensity,” said Djokovic, who let out a roar when the match was completed. “I just felt under tension the entire time. It was just super, super stressful to constantly be under pressure on my service games, because his service games were quite smooth with the big serve. — Field Level Media
