Novak Djokovic battles past Davidovich Fokina and injury at French Open

Novak Djokovic’s confidence continues to grow as he moved into the fourth round of the French Open after defeating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-2 in a tough, hard-fought contest on Friday evening in Paris.

The victory marks the Serb’s 14th consecutive place in round four here and his 88th victory at the French Open. He said: “I’m happy with where I am at the moment with my game. Can it be better? Certainly. Certainly. I still didn’t drop a set. I did play quite a few tiebreaks.

“But, look, it’s important to keep going. I have been in this situation really a lot of times in my career, so entering the second week, the matches, you have to expect that the matches are only going to get tougher.”

Despite surviving in straight sets, his afternoon was not without its difficulties against Davidovich Fokina, a charismatic Spaniard with ample flair and variety. The Spaniard, who is 24 on Monday, had won their previous encounter, also on clay, at Monte Carlo last year. Early on in the contest, it was Davidovich Fokina who dominated the baseline as Djokovic struggled to put sufficient weight on his shot.

The Spaniard created opportunities to make life even more difficult for Djokovic. Davidovich Fokina served for the first set at 6-5 before being broken back and pulled into a tiebreak that Djokovic edged. In the second set, after trailing by a break, Davidovich Fokina moved level with the Serb before bringing up a set point at 6-5 on Djokovic’s serve.

Once again, Djokovic elevated his game in the decisive moments. After grinding the Spaniard down on the set point, Djokovic again edged through the tiebreak.

After the second set, Djokovic called the trainer and received a massage to his left thigh. While he