Hello and welcome to middle Sunday at Wimbledon as a host of stars look to progress into the quarter-finals. But he will still need to finish off the job on Monday. It was the 14th consecutive grand slam tie break Djokovic had won, continuing a mind-boggling run during clutch moments. In the second set tiebreak he was 5-4 ahead, and two points from levelling up the match, but he let Djokovic recover again, and the Serbian secured the set thanks to Hurkacz’s erratic wide forehand. In the first, he was 6-3 up, with no fewer than three set points, when he allowed Djokovic to claw back from the brink - including by clattering an easy forehand into the net.
The Polish player had to be at his best to beat him, and despite putting himself in winning positions, choked both set tiebreaks. He is on top form, and only hit eight unforced errors across the two sets that were played on Sunday. Two years ago Hurkacz famously ousted eight-time champion Roger Federer with a bagel set in his last ever match on Centre Court, but Djokovic is not a man on his way out. It took him and Djokovic one hour and 46 minutes to play two sets, with both extending to tiebreaks. Earlier on, Andrey Rublev’s five-set battle set the schedule back on Centre Court, and big-serving Hurkacz was always going to pose a time-keeping problem. On Monday Djokovic and Hurkacz will resume their battle as the second match scheduled on Centre Court, which now has a total of four to squeeze in. The suspension of play was booed by the Centre Court crowd, and it will raise further questions about Wimbledon organisers’ staunch refusal to bring forward the start time on its main arena.Ĭurrently it is the last court to begin play each day at 1:30pm, half an hour after No 1 Court and two-and-a-half hours after the outside courts. But this was a very predictable scenario, as the players did not begin the match until 8:50pm. The reigning champion did not put up a fight, nor did his Polish opponent Hubert Hurkacz. Novak Djokovic was blocked from completing his match on Sunday night, after the Wimbledon curfew caught up with Centre Court for the second time this week.Īt 10:34pm, Djokovic had just clinched the second set tiebreak to take a 2-0 lead in this fourth round match when tournament referee Gerry Armstrong strode onto court to suspend play.
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