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Defending champion Novak Djokovic was temporarily derailed by big-serving Paul Hubert Hurkacz but bounced back quickly on Monday to reach the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
After racking up two bouts late Sunday before being defeated by a strict tournament curfew at 11pm, the 36-year-old came back to drop his first set of the tournament before sealing 7-6(6) 7-6(6). 5-7 6-4 victory.
Djokovic wasn’t at his best as Hurkacz briefly threatened a comeback but, as he often does, the 23-time Grand Slam men’s champion found a solution.
He is now equal second with Jimmy Connors reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon and will face seventh seed Andrey Rublev of Russia on Wednesday.
Remarkably, the Serbian player reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam in 56, finishing second only to Roger Federer.
As the wind swirled around center court, Djokovic struggled with his usual rhythm and dropped serve for the first time in the match to deliver the third set.
The second seed looked uncomfortable for a while against the 17th seed, who ended Federer’s career at Wimbledon two years ago.
But Djokovic finally took a first-half swoop as Hurkacz served it up for the first time at 3-3 in the fourth game – having dropped his previous seven break points.
From then on, it was clear as Djokovic quickly ended things in a medical fashion.
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