Djokovic reaches quarter-finals in ominous fashion
Djokovic, also in the last-chance saloon as far as his Olympic title hopes go, beat Germany's Dominic Koepfer 7-5 6-3 to reach the last eight at the Games for a record fourth time where he meets Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Serbia's Novak Djokovic and Spain's Carlos Alcaraz stayed on collision course for a golden showdown at the Paris Olympics as they surged through to the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
But Rafa Nadal's hopes of writing one last golden chapter in his Roland Garros love story ended in disappointment as he and Alcaraz lost in the quarter-finals of the doubles.
"I don't know what's going to happen in the future, but if that's the last time I enjoyed it," the 38-year-old said after a 6-2 6-4 loss to Americans Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek on the court where the king of clay won 14 French Open titles.
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Djokovic, also in the last-chance saloon as far as his Olympic title hopes go, beat Germany's Dominic Koepfer 7-5 6-3 to reach the last eight at the Games for a record fourth time where he meets Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The 21-year-old Alcaraz, seeded second, followed suit with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Russian Roman Safiullin to line up a quarter-final with American Tommy Paul.
Tokyo Olympics singles champion Alexander Zverev stayed on course for a repeat as the third seed beat Australia's Alexei Popyrin 7-5 6-3 to set up a quarter-final with Lorenzo Musetti.
Women's singles top seed Iga Swiatek became the first player from Poland to reach an Olympic semi-final as Danielle Collins retired trailing 4-1 in the third set of their scrap.
Anna Karolina Schmiedlova stunned Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-4 6-2 to become the first Slovak since Miloslav Mecir in 1988 to reach the Olympic singles semi-finals and China's Zheng Qinwen ended the stellar career of Germany's Angelique Kerber to emulate Li Na who reached the semi-finals of singles at the Beijing Games in 2008.
Kerber, who will retire after the Games, clung on grimly in stifling heat but Zheng eventually won 6-7(4) 6-4 7-6(6) to set up a semi-final with Swiatek.
Swiatek trounced Collins 6-1 in the first set, lost the second 6-2 and was hit painfully by a Collins shot in the decider before moving 4-1 ahead, at which point Collins pulled out.
Unseeded Croatian Donna Vekic concluded a marathon day as she served an ace on her fifth match point, having also saved one, to beat Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk at gone midnight.
