World No. 1 Novak Djokovic was in no mood to tinker with his Olympic preparations as he cruised for a routine 6-2 6-4 win over qualifier Radek Stepanek to storm into the quarter-finals of the Rogers Cup.
The top-seeded Serb needed just 88 minutes to extend his head-to-head record by 12-1 against the Czech veteran, thereby improving his performance to 48-4 this season.
Djokovic exploited a poor performance on serve from Stepanek as he converted two break points to take the opening set in no time.
Stepanek, however, fought back by breaking Djokovic’s serve early in the second set, before the latter broke back to make it two games all. The Serb chipped in with another break later in the game to complete a straight-set conquest of his 37-year-old opponent.
“I just wanted to focus on each point and not allow him to go up a break again,” said Djokovic, who committed just 16 unforced errors against Stepanek’s 39. “There were a lot of close games; it could have gone a different way in the second set.”
Moving on, Djokovic will cross the swords with another Czech in fifth seed Tomas Berdych, who overcame American journeyman Ryan Harrison 6-4 6-7 6-4.
