Djokovic Eases Into Shanghai Quarter-finals
World number one Novak Djokovic is through to the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Master after dismissing Canadian Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 6-4 to on Thursday.
Questions have been raised concerning the motivation of the 12-time Grand Slam winner. But he left little room for doubt in a comfortable victory.
Djokovic weathered 12 aces and 28 winners from 26-year-old Pospisil.
He completed the 79-minute victory with a searing forehand to the corner.
The Serb insists he is no longer chasing titles or rankings points after suffering a crisis of motivation since he completed a career Grand Slam at the French Open in June.
But he is now into the Shanghai last eight without dropping a set and will face 110th-ranked Mischa Zverev for a place in the semi-finals.
Other results
America’s Jack Sock recovered from losing the first set to love as he beat Milos Raonic 0-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10/8), ending a run of eight straight defeats to the Canadian fifth seed.
And Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ousted racquet-smashing teenager Alexander Zverev, denying the young German a potential match-up with his elder brother, Mischa.
Zverev, 19, pushed the ninth seed all the way until he was broken for 5-6 in the third set, prompting a furious racquet-battering which earned him a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Tsonga, serving for the match, safely negotiated three break points before a spectacular airborne smash set up match point, which he gobbled up to win 6-7 (4/7), 6-2, 7-5.
Zverev’s brother Mischa, a decade older at 29, also went three sets against Marcel Granollers of Spain but he came out on top 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-1.
The Zverevs were the first brothers since Olivier and Christophe Rochus at Miami 2006 to reach the last 16 of a Masters tournament, and were on course to meet in the semis.
Alexander Zverev has soared to 21st in the world after he won last month in St. Petersburg, becoming the first teenager in eight years to win an ATP tour title.
