Novak Djokovic got a rest of one extra day as his opponent in the quarter finals Fabio Fognini suffered injury and withdrew from the event.

Fognini is the first player from Italy to enter the quarters during last 13 years. He scored a marathon victory in a match that lasted four and a half hours against Albert Montanes. He finally became victorious with a score of 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 11-9.

The crowd in Paris got irritated due to the medical time out by Fognini against Montanes. The withdrawal of the Italian player must have disappointed them further.

He certainly had a daunting task in front of him to face Djokovic. The Serb is in top form and facing him without being 100% fit would have been suicidal.

Fognini remarked, “I have a little problem in my left leg, so I decided to retire. I’m not really happy because this is the best tournament of my career. But it is better like this. The doctor said if I play tomorrow, it could be dangerous.”

Djokovic on Twitter said, “Walkover from Fognini. Bad luck for him, hope he recovers fast. Today I get to enjoy Paris in a different way.”

It is interesting to note that Djokovic has played in 41 matches during 2011 and won all of them. He has an overall unbeaten streak of 43. Guierllemo Villas’ achievement of 46 unbeaten matches is quite close. If Djokovic wins the title in Paris he would get the number one ranking displacing Nadal.

Rafael Nadal, defending French Open champion, was not quite impressive against his opponent Ivan Ljubicic in match played on Monday. He still managed to win in three sets with a score of 7-5, 6-3, 6-3. The Spanish player is not in his prime form after Novak Djokovic outplayed him in finals of clay court consecutively.

Nadal remarked, “And having said that I need to find my game, I haven’t been playing too good lately to be honest. It did happen to me in the past in previous Roland Garros but that tends to disappear after a few rounds. But the truth is that I am practicing really well so I hope it is only a matter of time.”

The Spaniard next faces Robin Soderling and that will be a quite exciting contest. He will surely have to regain his prime touch to win this event as the new emerging players coming up are looking confident to make their mark.

Roger Federer appears to be in good form. The Swiss player is performing well. But, the former World Number 1 would be tested in the quarter finals as he plays against Gael Monfils of France. Monfils defeated David Ferrer in a marathon match of five sets.