Montreal: Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal cruised into the quarter-finals with routine victories at the $3,587,490 Canadian Open tennis tournament here. The top-seeded Djokovic, who captured his third Wimbledon title earlier this summer, was in superb form throughout the afternoon’s first match on Court Central on Thursday, dismantling American hopeful Jack Sock 6-2, 6-1 in just 54 minutes, Efe reported. Despite the lopsided result, the Serbian nine-time Major champion said it took him some time to figure out his opponent’s patterns in their first-ever meeting. But the three-time champion said he “felt in control of the match” after breaking the American’s serve in the sixth game of the first set.
Next up for the world No.1 in Friday’s quarter-finals will be Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis, who topped another American, Donald Young, 6-4, 6-4. Murray followed Djokovic on court and earned a similarly comfortable 6-3, 6-2 victory over Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller, who was outclassed throughout the one-hour, five-minute contest. With the win, the second-seeded Scot, winner of this U.S. Open tune-up event in 2009 and 2010, improved his career record against Muller to 5-0. Murray will next take on either defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France or Australia’s rising star Bernard Tomic, who will square off in the evening session. Seventh seed Nadal, 14-time Major winner, breezed past Russian Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-3. The Spaniard will meet Kei Nishikori. In another match, France’s Jeremy Chardy edged big-serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic 4-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-4.
