Even knowing what an unusual Wimbledon this has been, with so many unexpected results and new faces popping up, and so few top seeds — and major champions — remaining, surely Novak Djokovic would not lose to a wild-card entry making his Grand Slam debut.
If it did not quite seem plausible, it did at least become vaguely possible a tad past 9:30pm on Sunday night under the closed roof at Centre Court, when 25-year-old Dutchman Tim van Rijthoven — ranking world No. 104 with just eight tour-level victories, all in the past month — had the temerity to smack a 214kph ace past Djokovic and tie their fourth-round match at a set apiece.
All of nine minutes later, the time it took Djokovic to grab 12 of the next 15 points, and the next three games, both plausibility and possibility took a hike.
Photo: Reuters
Soon enough, the third set was his, and not much later, so was the fourth, and the match, a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 result that gave the tournament’s No. 1 seed a 25th consecutive grass-court victory at the All England Club and a place in his 13th Wimbledon quarter-final.
“Novak did his Novak thing,” Van Rijthoven said, “and played very, very well. He had all the answers.”
Eventually, the only true question was whether Djokovic would wrap this one up in time, because there is an 11pm curfew. Running up against that would have required them to resume yesterday.
“Whew. I am lucky,” Djokovic said after closing the deal with 20 minutes to spare. “It’s never really pleasant if you can’t finish the match in the same day. Glad I did.”
His pursuit of a fourth consecutive, and seventh overall, title at Wimbledon, not to mention a 21st major championship, is to continue today against No. 10 seed Jannik Sinner of Italy, who reached his first quarter-final at the All England Club by eliminating No. 5 Carlos Alcaraz 6-1, 6-4, 6-7 (8/10), 6-3 earlier.
The other quarter-final on their half of the bracket is to be No. 9 Cam Norrie of Britain against unseeded David Goffin of Belgium.
In women’s singles, Ons Jabeur’s hopes of becoming the first African to lift the Rosewater Dish gathered momentum, as she edged out Belgian Elise Mertens 7-6 (11/9), 6-4 in a topsy-turvy encounter to reach the quarter-finals for the second year running.
The second-ranked Tunisian, the only seed left in the bottom half of the women’s draw, has been the form player over the opening week of the grass-court championships as she reached the last eight without dropping a set.
Following the early exits of the two top seeds, Iga Swiatek and Anett Kontaveit, Jabeur knows she has a target on her back, but the Tunisian said she would stop at nothing to ensure she lifts the most famous dish in women’s tennis on Saturday.
“I have my goals very high for this tournament ... no matter who’s coming, I’m going to build the fight. I’m going to fight till the end because I really want the title,” Jabeur said.
The 27-year-old next faces 66th-ranked Czech challenger Marie Bouzkova.
In mixed doubles, Taiwanese Latisha Chan and her Croatian doubles partner Ivan Dodig bowed out after the six-time Grand Slam champion suffered a muscle tear.
Chan and Dodig were slated to square off with Indian tennis star Sania Mirza and her Croatian partner Mate Pavic in the round-of-16, but gave their opponents a walkover instead.
It is believed that Dodig was injured during a serve in the second round on Saturday, where he and Chan defeated Andreas Mies of Germany and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.
Additional reporting by Reuters and CNA
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