Tennis News: Former World No. 1 Novak Djokovic will face Denis Shapovalov

Djokovic went into lockdown mode with the Frenchman serving for the set at 5-3, breaking to love after extracting four consecutive unforced errors from the 26-year-old's racquet.

From there, the man who spent a record 373 weeks atop the Pepperstone ATP Rankings closed out a 7-6(3) 7-6(5) win to set up a quarter-final matchup with explosive Canadian shotmaker Denis Shapovalov. 

Halys, to his credit, remained competitive throughout, although he eventually fell to 0-12 in lifetime encounters versus top 30 opponents.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Footy fun in the sun 😎<a href="https://twitter.com/DjokerNole?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DjokerNole</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AdelaideTennis?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AdelaideTennis</a> <a href="https://t.co/jHeevioE7E">pic.twitter.com/jHeevioE7E</a></p>&mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) <a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1611034053238464514?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

"It was a great performance from my opponent today and I want to congratulate him for a great fight. He played like a Top 10 opponent," Djokovic said. "He was serving big, hitting his spots and on a fast court like this it's tough to break, so two tie-breaks is a realistic score in today's match. I'm glad to overcome the challenge."

Djokovic, who has won 20 of his last 21 matches, won his third career title in Adelaide in 2007. This week he will seek his 92nd career title. He next plays Shapovalov on Friday, followed by a possible blockbuster semi-final against Daniil Medvedev on Saturday.

Djokovic said, "Denis is one of the most complete players out there. He has a very dynamic style of tennis. He has a big serve, comes to the net, is comfortable playing at the back of a court and he's a great athlete. I haven't played him for a while so I'm looking forward to it. Every match from here gets tougher."

Denis Shapovalov will likely hit the practice court ahead of the Djokovic match to work on his first-serve rhythm. In the opening round, the Canadian hit only 55% of his first serves against Australian Rinky Hijikata while also committing nine double faults. 

Shapovalov dropped his double fault count to two in Thursday's 6-3, 6-3 triumph over another qualifier, World No. 88 Roman Safiullin, but still hit only 57% of first serves.

Despite losing nine of ten matches between Rome and Montreal last year, Shapovalov concluded the season with a 34-26 record and a No. 18 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

Djokovic leads their ATP Head2Head series 7-0, but Shapovalov has played quite competitively in their three encounters since 2020.

Sixth seed Jannik Sinner advanced as well, defeating local favourite Thanasi Kokkinakis 7-6(2), 6-4. Six of the seven break points he faced against the Australian wild card were saved by the Italian.

American Sebastian Korda, who has suddenly established traction in Adelaide, will make Sinner's task more difficult. Korda, who began his season with a straight-sets win over former World No. 1 Andy Murray, upset Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday.