Djokovic advances to quarterfinals after Monfils pulls out

PARIS (AP) — Novak Djokovic superior to the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters on Thursday with out enjoying some extent as a result of Gael Monfils pulled out injured.

Monfils, who’s 0-17 in opposition to the top-ranked Djokovic, mentioned he has an adductor damage.

“Following the medical opinion of my crew, we did an ultrasound just a few hours in the past and we recognized the muscular lesion,” the Frenchman mentioned. “Following this, we determined with the medical crew and my tennis crew to withdraw.”

Monfils expressed unhappiness at not with the ability to play in entrance of his dad and mom, who had traveled from the Caribbean to observe him.

“Nicely, horrible frustration, as a result of all of my household, my relations are right here, my mom got here from Martinique and my dad from Guadeloupe,” Monfils mentioned. “We waited till the final second, and yesterday the ultrasound was not nice. This morning we did one other ultrasound, it was not improbable both.”

Djokovic, a five-time champion on the Paris Masters, will subsequent face Taylor Fritz. The unseeded American beat Tenth-seeded Cameron Norrie 6-3, 7-6 (3) to harm the British participant’s probabilities of qualifying for the season-ending ATP Finals.

Fritz saved two set factors whereas trailing 40-15 within the Tenth recreation of the second set. He later held serve to drive a tiebreaker and had 4 match factors at 6-2. Norrie saved one match level on his his personal serve, however Fritz adopted up a robust first serve with a forehand winner on the following level to advance.

Fritz has misplaced all 4 of his profession matches in opposition to Djokovic, together with losses this 12 months on the Australian Open and the Rome Masters.

Seventh-seeded Hubert Hurkacz rallied to beat fortunate loser Dominik Koepfer 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 to strengthen his probabilities of clinching a spot on the ATP Finals, which begins on Nov. 14.

Hurkacz will subsequent play James Duckworth, an unseeded Australian who superior to his first Masters quarterfinal with a 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory over Alexei Popyrin.

Later Thursday, defending champion Daniil Medvedev was to face Sebastian Korda of their first profession assembly and fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev was to play No. 16 Grigor Dimitrov.

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