‘He brought the fire – I responded to that’: Djokovic through to Rome quarter-finals for 17th consecutive year after feisty spat with Norrie

Serb Novak Djokovic, the top seed, won against No 13 seed Cameron Norrie 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the quarter-finals of the Rome Masters at the Foro Italico on Tuesday.

The current world No 1 is now through to the last eight in Rome for the 17th consecutive year – and it came after a feisty little spat in the middle of the second set, as Norrie hit a shot into Djokovic’s ankles at close range.

Djokovic: I don’t understand Norrie’s attitude

Djokovic spoke in his press conference afterwards about the incident, saying: “I  did watch the replay when he hit me. Yeah, maybe you could say he didn’t hit me deliberately. I don’t know if he saw me…It was not so much maybe about that, but it was maybe a combination of things. From the very beginning, I don’t know, he was doing all the things that were allowed. He’s allowed to take a medical timeout. He’s allowed to hit a player. He’s allowed to say C’mon in the face more or less every single point from basically first game.

“Those are the things that we players know in the locker room it’s not fair play, it’s not how we treat each other. But, again, it’s allowed, so…I got along with Cameron really well all these years that he’s been on the tour. Practiced with each other. He’s very nice guy off the court, so I don’t understand this kind of attitude on the court, to be honest.

“But it is what it is. He brought the fire, and I responded to that. I’m not going to allow someone behaving like this just bending my head. I’m going to respond to that. That’s all it is. What happens on the court, we leave it on the court, and we move on.”

Djokovic, ranked No 1, will face the winner of the match between Australian qualifier Alexei Popyrin and Dane Holger Rune, the No 7 seed, next.

It will be the 91st ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final of Djokovic’s career.

The 35-year-old Serb beat Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry (7-6 (5), 6-2) and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, the No 26 seed (6-3, 4-6, 6-1) earlier in the tournament.

In the previous rounds of the Italian Open, Norrie, ranked No 13, defeated French qualifier Alexandre Muller (6-2, 6-3) and Hungarian Marton Fucsovics (6-2, 7-6 (4)).

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Rome Masters, other last 16 results (Foro Italico, clay, EUR 7.705.780, most recent results first):

• Borna Coric vs. Fabian Marozsan
• Andrey Rublev vs. Yannick Hanfmann
• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Jannik Sinner
• Casper Ruud vs. Laslo Djere
• Alexei Popyrin vs. Holger Rune: tuesday