Barcelona Open: Britons Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans cruise into last 16

Seventh seed Cameron Norrie received a bye in the opening round of the Barcelona Open

Britons Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans both claimed comfortable straight-set victories to reach the last 16 of the Barcelona Open.

In one hour and 15 minutes, British number one Norrie won against Russian qualifier Pavel Kotov 6-1 6-2. Evans also progressed by defeating Italy's Matteo Arnaldi 6-2 6-3. Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic, the world number one, fought back against France's Luca Van Assche and advanced to the quarter-final of the Srpska Open. Djokovic struggled in the opener, wasting three set points before Van Assche won the tie-break. However, Djokovic managed to break twice in the second set, leading to a deciding set, and eventually won the match 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 6-2. Djokovic stated before the match that his elbow was not in an ideal condition after his defeat by Italy's ninth seed Lorenzo Musetti at the Monte Carlo Masters last week, wearing strapping on Wednesday when he lost the first set at the Srpska Open. Djokovic will play against fellow countryman Dusan Lajovic or Gregoire Barrere of France in the quarter-finals, as Brit Liam Broady exited the tournament with a 6-3 6-0 first-round defeat to home favourite Damir Dzumhur.

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Norrie, the Briton, put up a dominant performance against 108th-ranked Kotov, dropping just three games. British number two Evans also displayed an equally confident performance by breaking Arnaldi three times on the clay, and he will be meeting Russian Karen Khachanov, who is ranked 11th in the world, in the next round. Norrie, who won a clay-court title at the Rio Open in February and is ranked world number 13, will face Musetti in the next round of the Barcelona Open. Musetti was knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters by his compatriot Jannik Sinner following his victory over Djokovic. Sinner, who is the fourth seed, reached the third round in Barcelona with a 6-2 6-4 win over Argentina's Diego Schwartzman. In the meantime, other seeds such as Alex de Minaur of Australia, Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov, and Canadian Denis Shapovalov also advanced to the last 16.