(Wimbledon) Novak Djokovic, 2nd in the world, took a step closer to a 24th Grand Slam title by beating the Pole Hubert Hurkacz (18th) 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (8/6), 5 -7, 6-4, Monday after a match interrupted the day before by the curfew.
“He had an amazing game. I can’t remember the last time I felt so helpless in return of serve,” commented the 36-year-old Serbian who will face Russian Andrey Rublev (7th) for a place in the semi-finals.
On Sunday night, Djokovic had just won the second tiebreak of the game when the supervisor decided to suspend the game around 10:35 p.m., 25 minutes before the curfew came into effect on the tournament.
“I trailed 3/6 in the first set tiebreaker and it could have been a different game if he had won that first set,” admitted Djokovic, unbeaten on Center Court at Wimbledon for ten years. years and his defeat in the final against Andy Murray on July 7, 2013.
When they resumed on Monday, the players very quietly kept their face-offs up to 6-5 for the Pole who then offered himself two set points on Djokovic’s serve and converted the second.
Facing the top receiver on the circuit, Hurkacz held on with exceptional consistency from his big serve: 33 aces, 85% first serves in the third set (and 73% overall) and an average on the match of 207 km/h on the first balls.
But in the fourth set, the Pole conceded his first-ever break of the tournament: Djokovic broke away 4-3 then 5-3 and prevailed by winning his next serve white.
The Serb becomes the third player in history to have played 100 matches at Wimbledon, after Jimmy Connors (102) and Roger Federer (119).
He will play his 14th quarter-final at Wimbledon on Tuesday, like Connors. Only Federer did better (18). In total, it will be his 56th major quarter-final, two points behind Federer’s record (58).
With this 32nd victory in a row at Wimbledon, where he is undefeated since his defeat in the quarterfinals in 2017 (with 4 titles in the process), Djokovic does better than Pete Sampras’ 31 and only has his sights set on 40. of Federer and the 41 of Björn Borg.
While he was one of the only players to have reached the round of 16 without being affected by the disruption of the program linked to the rain of the first three days, Djokovic will have to continue this time with his quarter on Tuesday.
Rublev, who he already outscored in the Australian Open quarter-finals in January, is a “very different” player from Hurkacz, Djokovic said.
“He’s got one of the biggest forehands on the tour, he likes to lead the rally… but I’m not going to get into the tactical details,” said the Serb, seeking a 24th Grand Slam title to match Margaret Court’s all-time record and an eighth Wimbledon crown to equal Roger Federer’s men’s record.
Daniil Medvedev, 3rd in the world, took advantage of the abandonment of his Czech opponent Jiri Lehecka (37th) at the end of the second set to qualify for the quarter-finals for the first time at Wimbledon.
Lehecka, who had his right foot treated for blisters at the end of the first set, threw in the towel as the Russian led two sets to nothing (6-4, 6-2).
“I didn’t even know he was hurt until he gave up. I had noticed that he wasn’t moving completely well, but he was hitting hard! It was when he gave up that I understood in hindsight,” the 27-year-old Russian commented.
He had never passed the round of 16 at Wimbledon before and will face the American Christopher Eubanks (43rd) for a place in the last four.
“This is my fifth Wimbledon and I have never lost on the No.1 court before. So I’m going to ask to continue here! “, he launched with humor.
“I’m not big on stats, but Wimbledon is by far my worst Grand Slam tournament in terms of rounds. I now hope to do better than at Roland-Garros,” he said.
On Parisian clay, a surface he loathes, Medvedev’s best result is a quarter-final in 2021. On his favorite surface, hard, he won the 2021 United States Open and played two finals at the United States Open. Australia in 2021 and 2022.
He had reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2021 and had been banned from the tournament in 2022, like all Russian and Belarusian players due to Russia’s armed invasion of Ukraine.
American Chris Eubanks pulled off world number 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas after five superb sets 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
It is a new disappointment for the Greek who has never crossed the eighth on the London lawn and who played a third match in five sets, after his already very spectacular victories against Dominik Thiem in the first round and Andy Murray in the second.
Eubanks, on the other hand, continues his meteoric rise at 27.
He who had never passed a second Grand Slam round, never beaten a top 10 player and who only entered the top 100 in April, savored this very special moment as he should.
“I feel like I’m living a dream, it’s crazy […] It’s surreal, I can’t believe it,” admitted the 43rd player in the world after his achievement.
“The weird thing about tennis is that you never play your best tennis the whole game, but you play as best you can as much as you can and in the important moments I played well. I’ve had my ups and downs, but you guys pushed me so hard to do amazing stuff,” he added, addressing the stunned audience.
Recent winner on grass in Mallorca, his first title and his sesame to enter the world top 50, the giant (2.01 m) American made the round back for three and a half sets before enjoying a small drop in speed of the Greek on his service.
Until 3-3 in the fourth set, Tsitsipas had been literally unplayable on his engagement, passing 65% of first serves and winning 88% of the points on his first serve and 72% on the second.
He had not conceded any break point while getting ten on the opposing service, winning the first and third sets with a score of 6-3.
Unfortunately for him, Eubanks had won the second set tiebreak, his fifth of five in this tournament.
And as soon as Tsitsipas dropped a little in his service, Eubanks, who played without complex and did not hesitate to claim the support of the public with a lot of gestures, rushed into the breach.
He broke at 4-4 in the fourth set on a double fault by Tsitsipas to win 6-4 and in the fifth he still raced ahead to finish with a cannon cross forehand that left Tsitsipas on the spot.
