Novak Djokovic is into his 13th Australian Open quarter-final with a 6-2 6-1 6-2 win over Alex De Minaur.
There were no hamstring issues for the nine-time champion as he convincingly defeated the Australian.
De Minaur offered nothing in attack as he only managed to win five games against the unbreakable Djokovic.
Next for Djokovic is fifth seed Andrey Rublev, who beat Holger Rune in a fifth set tiebreak.
It was a decent start from De Minaur who served well to begin the match, holding to love in the second game.
However this match was always going to be painfully stylistically for the 22nd seed as he has no big weapons or unique options to hurt Djokovic.
The Serb attempted to break in the fourth game but De Minaur created some effective baseline shots to keep him away.
However the fourth seed was convincing in return and finally broke to love with some powerful defence as he took a 4-2 lead.
There was very little tactical variety from De Minaur, no charge into the net and no slices or drop shots.
That wasn’t going to cut it against a dominant Djokovic who broke for the second time to take the opening set 6-2.
More dominance and control followed in the second set as De Minaur was struggling to win points let alone games.
After breaking in the second game, Djokovic tested De Minaur in a war of attrition which was only going to lead to one winner.
The Australian made some big serves to save four break points but Djokovic converted his fifth break point to secure a 4-0 lead.
A late service hold made little difference as Djokovic took a two set lead after 76 minutes.
The Australian committed 28 unforced errors and only hit nine winners as Djokovic continued to punish the world number 24.
After conceding two early breaks, De Minaur restored a little bit of pride by saving match point, therefore forcing Djokoivc to close out the match.
However pride was all it was as Djokovic stormed into a 13th Australian Open quarter-final.
After the match Djokovic claimed his hamstring injury didn’t bother him as he searches for a tenth title in Melbourne, “Tonight it wasn’t obvious I was dealing with an injury. I didn’t feel anything today, today was great,” Djokovic said in his on-court interview.
“I thank my medical team and physio and anybody that really helped me. I keep on going, obviously I don’t want to celebrate too early. I know that things can change really quickly.
“I don’t take anything for granted, I’m really pleased with the way I’ve played and moved and hit the ball today. When you’re playing you don’t know the extent of an injury until you actually play a competitive match. I’ve been taking a lot of pills these days and it’s not ideal but I’m trying to mask the pain. Anti-inflammatory pills that I normally don’t like taking.”
Djokovic will now play Andrey Rublev for a spot in his tenth Australian Open semi-final.
