Paris: World No. 1 Novak Djokovic became the first player to smash the $100 million (Dh367.8 million) prize-money barrier when he reached the French Open quarter-finals for the 10th time on Wednesday.
The 29-year-old Serb started the tournament with $99,673,404 (Dh408,836,623) and the 294,000 euros he earned by beating Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut took him past the landmark figure.
Top seed Djokovic defeated 14th seeded Bautista Agut 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-5 to move into a 28th consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final and 36th in all.
He will on Thursday take on Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych, who beat Spanish 11th seed David Ferrer 6-3, 7-5, 6-3.
Djokovic has a 23-2 career stranglehold on Berdych, who will be playing in his third Roland Garros quarter-final.
Djokovic, seeking a first French Open title to complete a career Grand Slam, was 4-1 ahead of Bautista Agut in the third set on Tuesday when play was halted due to rain after just two hours of action had been possible.
But the Serb quickly wrapped up the next two games on Wednesday and despite falling a break down to trail 2-4 in the fourth, he stormed back to claim victory on a second match point.
“With my coaching team, we had some tough talks on Tuesday night,” said Djokovic, who had struggled in the heavy conditions when he had uncharacteristically dropped serve five times.
“But I came back today [Wednesday] with more intensity even though it was a tough mental and physical battle.”
Djokovic refused to back complaints made by top-10 players Agnieszka Radwanska and Simona Halep, who insisted that Tuesday’s court conditions had been too dangerous.
“The conditions were definitely on the edge throughout the entire day. We played more than two sets in the mist,” said the Serb.
“It was literally maybe five to ten minutes of the entire stay of over one-and-a-half hours we had on the court without rain.
“But again, once you accept the circumstances and the decision is such that you play, then you have to go with it.”
Bautista Agut criticised the decision to play on Tuesday after Monday’s first complete washout in 16 years.
“The conditions were not good to play tennis and it was difficult to play with these heavy balls. Today I had a bit of pain on the elbow because of the balls,” he said.
Austria’s Dominic Thiem advanced to his maiden Grand Slam quarter-final with a 6-2, 6-7 (2/7), 6-1, 6-4 win over Spain’s Marcel Granollers.
Rain halted play at one set apiece on Tuesday, but 13th seed Thiem quickly found his groove on Wednesday to race through the third set before nailing down a place in the last eight.
The 22-year-old will next meet Belgian 12th seed David Goffin who saw off Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 in another match held over from Tuesday.
Goffin is only the second Belgian man to reach the last eight in Paris.
