Djokovic battles through to round 4

A relentless Novak Djokovic shrugged off Juan Martin Del Potro while Andy Murray overcame a nasty ankle injury as the second and fourth seeds joined champion Rafa Nadal in the French Open fourth round on Saturday.

An impromptu night's rest after Friday's match was suspended because of bad light at the end of the second set allowed Djokovic to swing the momentum back his way and take his 2011 winning streak to 40 matches with 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 triumph.

The Serb faced his toughest test since those finals when coming back out onto a packed and sunbaked court with 2009 US Open champion and 25th seed Del Potro threatening to upset all the pre-tournament predictions of more Djokovic success.

But any belief the Argentine has picked up by levelling late in Friday's gloom evaporated when Djokovic broke for 4-2 in the third set having earlier fought off two break points including with one tremendous slugging rally of 23 shots.

Del Potro then double-faulted to hand the world number two one of three breaks in the third game of the fourth as he nears John McEnroe's record of 42 wins since the start of a year.

Djokovic now locks horns with home favourite Richard Gasquet, who won through on Friday along with Roger Federer.

Juan Ignacio Chela also progressed to the last 16 while last year's runner-up Robin Soderling plays later.