Djokovic, Nadal enter quarters

DOHA — Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal both advanced to the quarterfinals of the Qatar Open Wednesday. Djokovic beat Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-2, saving two break points during the match. The top-ranked Serb, who is now 8-4 against Verdasco, improved his winning streak against Spaniards to 17 matches, dating back to a 2014 loss to Tommy Robredo. Djokovic will play eighth-seeded Leonardo Mayer of Argentina in the quarterfinals. Nadal beat Robin Haase of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-2. The Spaniard saved both break points he faced. Nadal will next face Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia. Also, seventh-seeded Jeremy Chardy defeated Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals. Djokovic breezed through to the last 8, losing just four games. It matched the score of his first-round victory against Dustin Brown and means the Serb has spent just two hours on court in the first two rounds. “Both of the matches went very well,” said the Serb immediately afterward, adding he had put in a “very solid performance” Wednesday. Ominously for his rivals, Djokovic looked already to be getting back to his dominant form of 2015. In warmer temperatures experienced in Doha than in the rest of the week, around 20°C, Djokovic controlled the match from the very beginning. He first broke Verdasco’s serve in the fourth game to 15 and was rarely troubled after that. The Serb squandered another break point just two games later but eventually closed out the set on Verdasco’s serve to go one up in just 31 minutes. Verdasco, the world No. 49 who had beaten Djokovic four times in their 11 previous meetings, offered some resistance in the second set but only enough to delay the inevitable. The Spaniard, who may have been feeling the effects of his first round victory less than 24 hours before, missed two break opportunities in the second set and was made to pay. Djokovic, was watched on by coach Boris Becker, the first winner of the Qatar Open back in 1993.