Djokovic carves out easiest career path to Week 2 of Roland Garros

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic continued to steamroll through the draw at Roland Garros on Saturday night, beating Colombian lucky loser Daniel Elahi Galan in the third round, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2.

The Serb has lost just 15 games in his first three rounds, the fewest he's ever lost to reach the second week at Roland Garros. He beat Mikael Ymer in the first round, 6-0, 6-2, 6-3, and Ricardas Berankis in the second round, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2. His previous-fewest games lost in the first week was 23 in 2012.

Djokovic's win over Galan was also his 71st career win in Paris, passing Roger Federer for second-most career wins for a man in the tournament's history. He now trails only Nadal, who's at 96.

The Serb's two-hour, eight-minute win over Galan was closer than the scoreline would suggest. He never lost serve, but he had to fight off five break points—one in the second set, four in the third set. But in the end he was just too sharp, finishing with 10 more winners than unforced errors, 38 to 28.

He also improved to 12-0 in his tour-level career against lucky losers.

"I understand the effort and the amount of work and dedication that's needed in order to reach a Grand Slam and to win a few rounds, to be here competing with the best players in the world. That's always worthy of respect," the 17-time Grand Slam winner said in his post-match press conference.

"There's heightened awareness or caution when you play someone for the first time, because they can come out firing and really have nothing to lose, and just play the tennis of their lives. But on the other side, if you impose yourself from the very beginning, which I have in the first three matches here, it makes it hard for them to really believe they can come back and make a turnaround in the match."

Awaiting the No. 1 seed next up in the fourth round will be No. 15 seed Karen Khachanov, who was a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 winner earlier in the day against the No. 20 seed, Cristian Garin.

Djokovic leads Khachanov in their head-to-head, 3-1, the Russian's win coming in the final of the Masters 1000 event in Paris in 2018, 7-5, 6-4. The two have never played each other on clay.

"He's playing well on all surfaces. He proved it many times," Khachanov commented. "But yeah, I'm just taking it one match at a time. I will try to prepare as best as possible, just to try to show my best. I will fight for sure for every point. It will be an interesting match, a challenging match for me.

"The most important thing for me is to stay steady, to believe in myself, to believe in the game I'm playing, and at the end of the day, to enjoy it. I'm looking forward to a good match, and then let's see."