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The 24-times Grand Slam winner mounted a
comeback, however, as he convincingly won the tiebreak and took
the decider to continue his quest for a record-extending seventh
title in Paris.
"I run out of steam, I've been struggling the last couple of
days with my stomach, I didn't feel myself at all on court," the
36-year-old Djokovic said.
"It could've run easily on his way, but I played a good tiebreak
and started to feel better on the third. I'm really happy I
overcame this challenge."
Fourth seed Jannik Sinner withdrew from the tournament, citing
health reasons after his second-round clash against Mackenzie
McDonald ended at 2:37 am on Thursday.
The Italian was due to play Australia's Alex de Minaur, who will
now face in-form Andrey Rublev, the fifth-seed Russian who
earned his 20th Masters 1000 win of the season by beating
qualifier Botic Van de Zandschulp 6-3 6-3.
Seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas secured his spot at the ATP
Finals with a 7-6(2) 6-4 win over German 10th seed Alexander
Zverev. The Greek will play Karen Khachanov in the
quarter-finals after the 16th seed beat fellow Russian Roman
Safiullin 4-6 6-4 6-2.
Poland's Hubert Hurkacz, the 11th seed, remained in contention
for a spot at the tournament in Turin by beating Argentine
Francisco Cerundolo 6-4 6-3.
He will meet Grigor Dimitrov for a place in the semi-finals
after the Bulgarian routed Alexander Bublik 6-2 6-2.
In the last act of the evening, defending champion and sixth
seed Holger Rune claimed a comfortable 6-3 6-3 win over Daniel
Altmaier. The Dane will face Djokovic in a rematch of last
year's final.
(Reporting by Janina Nuno Rios in Mexico City, editing by Ed
Osmond)
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