Shanghai Masters: Novak Djokovic breezes previous Flavio Cobolli at ATP occasion

Novak Djokovic continued his pursuit of a one hundredth title by demolishing younger Italian Flavio Cobolli to achieve the final 16 of the Shanghai Masters.

The 37-year-old Serb was sharp and affected person in his 6-1 6-2 victory, which took greater than an hour.

Cobolli, who grew up idolizing the 24-year-old Grand Slam champion, couldn’t resist Djokovic’s skill to anticipate rallies and barely missed a return.

Alongside together with his unerring accuracy with clear groundstrokes from the baseline, Djokovic’s excessive stage ensured he dropped simply seven factors earlier than serving.

Subsequent, the world quantity 4 will face Roman Safiullin of Russia to advance to the quarter finals.

Djokovic goals to change into solely the third man – after Jimmy Connors (109) and Roger Federer (103) – to finish a century of event wins.

Returning to Shanghai for the primary time since 2019, Djokovic admitted the prospect of successful a historic title offers him “further motivation” on the ATP 1000 occasion.

Djokovic has scaled again his schedule as he prioritizes main occasions and this 12 months performed his second fewest matches in a single season since 2005.

The way in which the 22-year-old Cobolli, ranked thirtieth on this planet after a exceptional season, has struggled is a reminder of the risk he poses.

Shortly after Djokovic’s victory, Safiullin managed to win a tie break towards American thirteenth seed Frances Tiafoe.

Tiafoe was livid with referee Jimmy Pinoargote after the 5-7 7-5 7-6 (7-5) defeat, hurling insults on the Ecuadorian official.