DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Novak Djokovic earned his 700th career match win at the expense of Tunisian wild card Malek Jaziri 6-1, 6-2 at the Dubai Championships on Wednesday.
Djokovic, who joined the tour a decade ago, has a 700-146 career match record.
He’s one of three active players to reach 700 wins, the others being Roger Federer with 1,067, and Rafael Nadal on 775.
"Sounds like I played many matches in my career," a smiling Djokovic told the crowd.
Djokovic has won the Dubai title four times, but lost to Federer in the last two years.
In the first set, Djokovic lost just two points in four service games.
The only scare he faced was when serving for the match in the eighth game of the second set. He double faulted to a break point, but recovered to secure the match three points later.
"Solid match and performance," Djokovic said. I will take the positives for tomorrow."
Djokovic will play sixth-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain in the quarterfinals. Lopez advanced with a 6-3, 7-6 (7) win over Lukas Rosol of Czech Republic.
Second-seeded Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland advanced with a 7-5, 6-1 win against Croatian qualifier Franko Skugor.
Wawrinka, who was two points from defeat in his first round match against Sergiy Stakhovsky, will play eighth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in the quarterfinals.
Kohlschreiber beat Borna Coric of Croatia 6-2, 7-6 (5).
Third-seeded Tomas Berdych reached his fourth quarterfinal of the season with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Italian qualifier Thomas Fabbiano.
Berdych, a two-time Dubai finalist, holds a 22-4 win-loss record at the tournament. He’s reached at least the semifinals four of the last five years.
He next plays Nick Kyrgios of Australia. Kyrgios, who defeated Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-2, upset Berdych en route to winning his first career title in Marseille, France last week.
Fourth-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain pummeled Hyeon Chung of South Korea 6-0, 6-1 to reach his fifth quarterfinal of the year.
The 18th-ranked Bautista Agut has won two of his four career titles this year – at Auckland, New Zealand, and Sofia, Bulgaria.
He next plays Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the quarters. Bagdhatis defeated Vasek Pospisil of Canada 6-4, 6-2.
