Novak Djokovic has never done worse than the quarterfinals in all 16 of his previous trips to the Internazionali BNL d’Italia and the world No. 1 kept that streak alive in 2023, weathering “strange conditions” and feisty opposition to defeat Cameron Norrie, 6-3, 6-4.

Djokovic shook off a second-set body shot and medical timeout from his British rival to maintain his impressive consistency at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

The No. 1 criticised Cameron Norrie’s behaviour after the Briton hit him with a smash while his back was turned in their Italian Open match.

The flashpoint occurred when Norrie was down a set and a break.

The Serbian had turned around and given up on a point when Norrie produced a game-winning smash which struck Djokovic in the calf.

Djokovic did not look pleased with the smash and responded with a lengthy glare towards Norrie.

Norrie said sorry and raised his hand in apology, but it drew whistles from the crowd.

“I have got along very well with Cameron over the years that he’s been on tour. He’s a very nice guy off the court so I don’t understand this kind of attitude on the court,” said Djokovic, who faces Danish seventh seed Holger Rune in the last eight.

“He brought the fire and I responded to that. I’m not going to allow someone behaving like this bending my head.

Holger Rune has progressed to the quarter-finals of the Italian Open, beating Australia’s Alexei Popyrin 6-4 5-7 6-4 in just over three hours.

The No. 7 seed produced a confident display against qualifier Popyrin to set up a meeting with Novak Djokovic in the next round.

Rune will face Djokovic at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia for the first time since the Rolex Paris Masters final last fall, where the Danish youngster won the biggest match of his young career.

“I can’t wait, honestly, to play the No. 1 in the world,” he beamed after win over Popyrin at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

“It’s going to be a great experience, even though I’ve already played him twice. The last match was insane, the biggest win of my career.”

World No. 4 Casper Ruud will play Cerundolo after reaching the quarter-finals for the third year in a row following an easy 6-1 6-3 win over Laslo Djere in just over an hour.

Jannik Sinner is out of the Italian Open after a shock 6-7(3) 6-2 6-2 defeat to No. 24 seed Francisco Cerundolo.

This year’s Monte Carlo Masters champion Andrey Rublev is also out after a 7-6(5) 4-6 6-2 defeat to qualifier Yannick Hanfmann.

Hanfmann, who had only twice been in the main draw of a Masters event before Rome, was extremely aggressive off his forehand, hitting 43 winners in total compared to Rublev’s 33.

Fittingly the German slammed down an ace to record the biggest win of his career.