ROME — The distance between Novak Djokovic and his competitors remains gaping. But Rafael Nadal, his primary rival, especially on clay, gave it a good try on Friday in the quarterfinals of the Italian Open.
The top-ranked Djokovic had to stave off five set points in the second set to defeat the fifth-ranked Nadal, 7-5, 7-6 (5). Djokovic, who trailed by 2-4 in the first and 4-5 in the second, extended his streak of consecutive sets won over Nadal to 15.
“I wanted to be more aggressive whenever the ball was shorter to take advantage of it,’’ Djokovic said.