PARIS — After needing seven set points to clinch the first set, four-time champion Novak Djokovic reeled off six straight games to reach the Paris Masters quarterfinals with a 7-6 (7), 6-1 win against Kyle Edmund on Thursday.
The top-ranked Serb finished off his British opponent by breaking him at love with a two-handed backhand winner into the left corner.
Djokovic, a 16-time Grand Slam champion, won 89% of his first serves and conceded no break points.
Djokovic next faces seventh-seeded Greek player Stefanos Tsitsipas, who had 11 aces in a 6-3, 6-4 win against Alex de Minaur. Tsitsipas holds a 2-1 record against Djokovic — including earlier this month in the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Masters.
Also, Grigor Dimitrov advanced by beating Dominic Thiem 6-3, 6-2, breaking the fifth-seeded Austrian’s serve four times. The Bulgarian did not face a break point and next plays Cristian Garin, an unseeded Chilean who saved three match points in a 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (6) win against Jeremy Chardy.
In Thursday’s later matches, second-ranked Rafael Nadal faced Stan Wawrinka for the 22nd time, having won 18 of the previous 21.
Nadal can guarantee the year-end No. 1 ranking for the fifth time if he wins this tournament for the first time, while Djokovic seeks a record-tying sixth year-end finish with the top ranking.