US Open: Novak Djokovic battles into 26th straight Slam last-eight

World No 1 Serb storms into his 26th consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final with 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Spains Roberto Bautista Agut at Flushing Meadows

New York: World No 1 Novak Djokovic reached his 26th consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final on Sunday but only after surviving a US Open scare against Spain-s Roberto Bautista Agut. The 2011 champion won 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 to set-up a clash against Spanish veteran Feliciano Lopez in what will also be his ninth US Open last-eight place in a row.


Night rider: Serbia-s World No 1 Novak Djokovic celebrates his win over Spain-s Roberto Bautista Agut in the men-s singles pre-quarterfinal at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on Sunday night. Djoko next plays Feliciano Lopez in the quarters. Pic/AFP 

Clawing back
Djokovic gave up a 4-2 lead in the second set and saw an early break clawed back in the fourth by the 23rd seeded Agut, a former junior footballer with Villarreal in Spain. The Serb was also broken when serving for the match at 5-2 as Agut unleashed a barrage of deep, murderous forehands before steadying himself to claim his 60th win of the year.

"He fought and hung in there. It was a great match," said Djokovic, who hit 42 winners but also committed 37 unforced errors. "I had a couple of points to break for 5-2 in the second set but I didn-t capitalise and the match turned around. "He made me work for it — there were no free points."

Lopez, 33, reached his first US Open quarter-final at the 14th attempt with a 6-3, 7-6 7-5, 6-1 win over Italy-s Fabio Fognini, the conqueror of Rafael Nadal in the previous round. "Lopez is not the typical Spanish player. He comes into the net on first and second serve. He serves and volleys, uses a lot of slice," said Djokovic. Lopez, the 18th seed, said Djokovic will hold the cards having won all of the pair-s five meetings.

The Spanish left-hander has only ever taken one set off Djokovic and that was in their first meeting at the 2007 Australian Open. "I will be 34 in September so it-s a great feeling to be playing like this and reaching my first US Open quarter-final," he said.

"When Novak plays good, you don-t know what to do to be honest. He has no weaknesses in his game." Lopez had put out 10th seed Milos Raonic in the third round after having been just four points away from defeat against Mardy Fish in the second round. But he was rarely threatened by Fognini, breaking in the fourth game of the first set and then coming back from 3-1 down in the second.

Fognini, the 32nd seed and bidding to become the first Italian to reach the last eight in a decade, required a medical timeout on a back injury at the end of the set.

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