Defending champion Novak Djokovic survived some tough moments against Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz before wrapping up his fourth-round clash held over from Sunday night as he reached the quarterfinals here on Monday.
After winning the first two sets on Sunday evening, the seven-time champion from Serbia returned to Centre Court 16 hours later and dropped the third set before sealing a 7-6(6), 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-4 victory over Hurkacz.
In another match,American Christopher Eubanks stunned fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in a five-set thriller in the fourth round, storming into the quarterfinals with a superb win. Eubanks came back from a set deficit twice as he won the match 3-6, 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in just over three hours at the No.2 Court.
In what was his 100th match at Wimbledon, Djokovic faced some stressful times on Monday in the match that was suspended because of the 11 pm curfew on Sunday. When the action resumed, Hurkacz who played the more relaxed tennis, which helped him win the third set. His 33 aces proved menacing for the Serbian.
But Djokovic survived and will next play seventh seed Andrey Rublev, who defeated Alexander Bublik in five sets on Sunday. The 23-time major winner leads the pair’s ATP head-to-head series 3-1, with Rublev winning on clay in last year’s Belgrade final.
Hurkacz came out fighting on Monday as the Polish world No.18, who missed three set points in the opening set tie-break and was serving at 5-4 in the second set shootout and rattled off the opening six points of the third set.
He dropped only three points during his opening six service games and with Djokovic serving at 5-6 15-30, Hurkacz clobbered a big forehand up the line to bring up two set points, clinching the third set 7-5.
Djokovic, however, claimed the momentum back in the seventh game of the fourth set. Hurkacz saved two break points from 15-40 only to lose his footing behind the baseline at deuce to allow Djokovic to engineer a third. This time the Serb made no mistake, taking control of the point before watching a Hurkacz forehand sail wide. Moments later Djokovic sailed through his final service game to love to seal victory.
The result improves Djokovic’s statistics at the biggest tournaments in the world as it was his 90th win on London grass and set him up for his 14th Wimbledon quarterfinal and his 56th across four Grand Slams.
Djokovic stayed on track for a fifth successive Wimbledon title and a record-equalling eighth men’s singles trophy, the 24th Grand Slam title of his career and also on course for a calendar Grand Slam after winning the Australia and French Open tournaments earlier in the year.
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