PARIS:
Taylor Fritz departed the French Open in a wheelchair this year, but his return to Paris is proving a far happier experience as he reached the Paris Masters quarterfinals after beating Cameron Norrie 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) on Thursday (Friday in Manila).
The 24-year-old American's reward for ousting the 14th seeded Briton is a meeting with world number one Novak Djokovic, who beat Fritz in five sets at this year's Australian Open.
Djokovic will have had mixed feelings about how he got to the Masters last eight as he came to Paris saying he needed match practice after seven weeks off.
However, his third-round opponent, the mercurial Frenchman Gael Monfils, withdrew before their match due to a groin injury he suffered in his three-set win over compatriot Adrian Mannarino on Wednesday.
World number two Daniil Medvedev and world number four Alexander Zverev had to pull out all the stops to reach the last eight.
Medvedev came from a set down to beat Sebastian Korda 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 while the man he beat in last year's final Zverev required 2 hours 46 minutes to overcome Grigor Dimitrov 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (3/7), 6-3.
Medvedev will next face French qualifier Gaston Hugo, who defeated in-form Carlos Alcaraz of Spain 6-4, 7-5.
Zverev showed great spirit to get over letting two match points slip in the second set and then the Olympic champion saved six breakpoints in the decisive set.