'At home' Djokovic makes winning return in Athens
Serbia's Novak Djokovic reacts during a tribute to his former coach Nikola Pilic after winning his round of 16 match against Chile's Alejandro Tabilo REUTERS
Novak Djokovic returned after three weeks out of action to ease past Alejandro Tabilo in straight sets at the Athens ATP tournament on Tuesday.
Top seed Djokovic, the recipient of a first-round bye at the indoor hard-court tournament, won through 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 against his 89th-ranked opponent in the round of 16.
Djokovic, 38, had lost his previous two meetings against Tabilo, a decade younger, on clay in Rome last year and Monte Carlo this season.
"Playing against Tabilo, who I had never won against, I was more under tension before the match than some other matches and I really tried to draw the energy from the crowd," Djokovic said.
"It feels really at home, playing in Athens," continued the 24-times Grand Slam winner who has recently moved to Athens.
"A few months ago when I came here with my family, I was very excited because I have always loved Greece.
"Serbians love Greece, for sure. Historically, culturally, and religiously, we have a lot of things connecting us.
"Athens is in my heart, no question about it."
The world number five, whose presence at the season-ending WTA finals in Turin was confirmed on Monday, took the measure of the Chilean in the opening set tiebreak and broke twice in the second set to reach his 225th tour-level quarter-final.
Djokovic will next play Portuguese sixth-seed Nuno Borges who rallied past American qualifier Eliot Spizzirri 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.
After his defeat in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters 1000 against Valentin Vacherot on October 11, Djokovic skipped the Paris Masters, which ended on Sunday.
In tears after tribute to late coach Pilic
Djokovic fought back tears after his second-round win at the Hellenic Championship in Athens on Tuesday after tournament organisers played a tribute video to his former coach Nikola Pilic, who died in September aged 86.
In his playing days, Croatian Pilic was runner-up at the French Open in 1973 and after turning to coaching captained Germany to three Davis Cup titles between 1988 and 1993.
Djokovic, who joined Pilic's academy in Germany when he was 12, was visibly moved during the video, which played after the 24-times Grand Slam champion defeated Alejandro Tabilo 7-6(3) 6-1. "It was an emotional moment," the 38-year-old told the ATP website.
"Considering what he meant to me and my family - privately, also professionally - he was my tennis father as I like to call him, someone who has played a fundamental, integral role in my development as a tennis player and as a human being.
"As long as I play tennis and as long as I live, I'll celebrate his name," he added. "This was one of the moments of how to pay tribute and I'm sure in future people will learn about how Niki has impacted the world of tennis and the world of sport. "He deserves it. He was a special man."