No. 1 cruising at French, eyes ‘Djoker Slam II’
PARIS — Top-ranked Novak Djokovic is starting to make winning majors look relatively easy.
Djokovic advanced into the fourth round of the French Open without dropping a set, extending his Grand Slam win streak to 24 matches as he seeks a fourth major title in a row.
He never lost control in a 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 win over 147th-ranked Italian qualifier Salvatore Caruso on Saturday, winning 84% of his points on first serve to improve to 42-1 against players ranked outside the ATP Top 100 in majors.
Djokovic just needs to win the French to have all four Grand Slam titles back in his possession for a second time in his career — dubbed the “Djoker Slam” when he accomplished it in 2015-16.
Only two other men have held all four major titles simultaneously — Rod Laver, who won calendar-year Grand Slams in both 1962 and 1969, and Don Budge, who won a record six majors in a row in 1937-38.
Djokovic has only once won the French Open (2016), but he has 15 Grand Slam titles overall — and is quietly creeping closer to Roger Federer (20) and Rafael Nadal (17), who both have joined Djokovic in the fourth round.
Next up for Djokovic is Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, who outlasted 13th-seeded Borna Coric 4-6, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (1), 11-9.
Elsewhere, Stan Wawrinka improved to 4-0 against Grigor Dimitrov in Grand Slam meetings — beating him once at each major — and moved into the fourth round at Roland Garros for the eighth time.
Wawrinka, the champion here in 2015 and runner-up in 2017, edged two-time major semifinalist Dimitrov 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (8) in a match suspended after two sets because of fading light a day earlier.
Dimitrov certainly had his chances to make it even tighter: He held one set point in the opener, then five in the last tiebreaker, which he led 6-2.
The 24th-seeded Wawrinka, who owns three Grand Slam titles in all, and Dimitrov are the 43rd pair of players to have met at all four majors.
Alexander Zverev almost blew a 2-0 set lead against Dusan Lajovic but prevailed 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 1-6, 6-2 to advance to the second week. The No. 5 seed has won seven five-set matches in majors going back to the start of last season, the most of any player in that time.
Other seeded players to advance included No. 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas, who next faces Wawrinka, and No. 9 Fabio Fognini, who survived a first-set tiebreak en route to a 7-6 (5), 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 victory against No. 18 Roberto Bautista Agut.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.