WIMBLEDON, England — Novak Djokovic might want to put in some work to get to the Wimbledon quarterfinals as he seeks a fifth consecutive title and eighth general on the All England Club.
Djokovic took the primary two units 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6) – after trailing in every tiebreaker – towards Seventeenth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz on Sunday evening at Centre Court earlier than their fourth-round match was suspended as a result of it was getting too late to proceed to play.
They didn’t begin till about 8:50 p.m. as a result of the previous match lasted about three hours. After Djokovic claimed the second set when Hurkacz despatched a forehand huge at 10:35 p.m., chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani introduced to the gang: “Ladies and gentlemen: Play suspended.”
Local guidelines forestall Wimbledon matches from extending previous 11 p.m., and so matches that strategy that point usually will probably be halted after a set ends.
They’ll resume the fourth-rounder on Monday, with the winner to face No. 7 Andrey Rublev for a spot within the semifinals.
Djokovic may have been dealing with a a lot harder evening’s sleep had issues gone barely in a different way.
Hurkacz — whose victory over Roger Federer within the 2021 Wimbledon quarterfinals was the final outing of the 20-time Grand Slam champion’s profession — pulled forward 6-3 within the opening tiebreaker. That gave him a trio of set factors.
But Djokovic stole the subsequent 5 factors on errors off Hurkacz’s racket: a backhand into the online; a forehand return into the online; a forehand into the online; a backhand into the online; a forehand return that landed lengthy.
Hurkacz then was up 5-4 within the subsequent tiebreaker, however by no means obtained nearer that point, and Djokovic transformed his second set level.
Earlier in that set, Djokovic misplaced some extent when he misplaced his steadiness and his momentum carried him into the online. He and Hurkacz each laughed about it and threw their arms round one another’s shoulders.
The 36-year-old Djokovic is making an attempt to attain all kinds of milestones throughout this fortnight. In addition to making an attempt to equal Federer’s males’s data for many Wimbledon championships in a row within the Open period (additionally shared with Bjorn Borg) and most in a profession (Martina Navratilova received 9 girls’s trophies for the general mark), Djokovic can also accumulate a twenty fourth Grand Slam title.
He obtained No. 23 on the French Open final month to interrupt a tie with Rafael Nadal for the boys’s mark and pull even with Serena Williams for essentially the most by anybody within the Open period. Margaret Court received 24 throughout the novice {and professional} eras.
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