Second seed Novak Djokovic takes on 19th seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the Men's singles R16 tie of 2017 French Open at the Roland Garros Stadium on Sunday.
The defending champion heads into the tie on the back of surviving a big scare against Argentina's Diego Schwartzman in his last encounter on Friday. Djokovic was taken to the decider after he began the match by losing the first set. Trailing the Argentine 1-2 at the end of the third set, the Serb buckled up and went on to win the match 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.
On the other hand, world number 19 Ramos-Vinolas stunned higher-ranked Lucas Pouille 6-2, 3-6, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 in a hard-fought encounter to book his place in the R16 round.
Djokovic has struggled to hit form in the ongoing season and had out of sorts after his season-opening hard court tournament in Doha. However, after parting ways with his coaching team after Madrid Open loss to Rafael Nadal, Djokovic all but ended his title drought in Rome - lost to Alexander Zverev in the final following a casual performance.
Having roped in Andre Agassi as his coach ahead of his title defence in Paris, the 12-time Grand Slam champion will face his first big test of Sunday against in-form Ramos-Vinolas, who reached the quarter-final of last year's French Open.
After having a solid run on Latino clay with a title at Sao Paulo and a semi-final apperance at Rio de Janeiro, Ramos-Vinolas finished as runner-up at Monte Carlo Masters losing to Rafael Nadal in the final. He had beaten the likes of Andy Murray, Marin Cilic and Lucas Pouille enroute to the title match.
However, early exits at Madrid, Rome and Geneva came as a setback for Ramos-Vinolas. The Spaniard though should take confidence from his campaign so far and put up a stiff fight agasint Djokovic if he is to stand a chance of emulating last year's run in in the tournament.
