Eastbourne: Top seed Novak Djokovic passed his first grass court test of the season on Wednesday, defeating Canadian qualifier Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals at Eastbourne.
The Serb is playing a pre-Wimbledon event for the first time since 2010 and will next face the winner from a pair of Americans, Donald Young and Jared Donaldson.
The two-time Wimbledon champion got onto court for what was the first contest of the day after rain washed out play on Tuesday — save one game in the Djokovic match — leaving organisers with a backlog to get through.
The former number one claimed his fifth victory without a defeat against Pospisil, who is now 4-22 lifetime against Top 10 opponents.
Djokovic, who will be advised by Andre Agassi at Wimbledon, is the second-highest-ranked men’s player to ever compete at the Aegon International behind then-number two Marcelo Rios in 1998.
Meanwhile, Geneva was chosen as preferred bidder to host combined Davis Cup and Fed Cup finals from 2018 as part of reforms to transform the season-ending events, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) said on Wednesday.
Under the plan, it said, the two finals would be merged into the World Cup of Tennis on a three-year deal and staged on hard courts at Geneva’s Palexpo arena starting in November 2018.
“The creation of the World Cup of Tennis finals is at the heart of a series of reforms that represent the most significant changes in the history of Davis Cup and Fed Cup,” ITF president David Haggerty said in a federation statement.
“Change is needed to ensure that we maximise the full potential of these iconic and historic competitions.”
The ITF statement said combined finals would “unlock new revenues for tennis development, increased prize money and player bonus pool”.
The plan will be part of a wide-ranging reform package to be submitted for approval at the ITF’s annual general meeting in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in August.
Geneva was chosen by the ITF board of directors at their meeting in Frankfurt on Tuesday ahead of bids from Copenhagen, Istanbul, Miami, Turin and Wuhan.
