A clinical Novak Djokovic booked his place in the Wimbledon quarter-finals as he saw off 21-year-old Holger Rune in straight sets 6-3 6-4 6-2 in Centre Court.
Djokovic, who dropped sets in his previous two Wimbledon displays vs Britain’s Jacob Fearnley and Australia’s Alexei Popyrin, clinched the game in the minimum this time round vs Denmark’s Rune – the latter starting like a man overawed, but going on to show great spirit thereafter.
In his courtside interview after, Djokovic expressed anger at certain sections of the Wimbledon crowd, stating that while some were chanting “Rune”, others took it as an opportunity to boo him. The Serbian said: “I’ve played in far more hostile environments than this. You guys can’t touch me,” in a somewhat bizarre series of comments.
Awaiting Djokovic is a meeting with Australia’s Alex de Minaur, who punched a ticket to his first Wimbledon quarter-final with a 6-2 6-4 4-6 6-3 victory over France’s Arthur Fils.
Djokovic raced to take the first set in just 29 minutes, breaking a stunned Rune in just the second game of the contest before moving 3-0 ahead without Rune winning a single point from the opening 12 on offer.
The 21-year-old Dane settled thereafter to hold his own service game three times, but that one break was all Djokovic required as he served out the set.
If Rune was nervous and timid in the opening set, he was anything but in the second, proving more of a threat on the Djokovic serve than the other way round as he forced things to 15-30 in his favour twice, before forcing Djokovic to hold to 30 a third time.
All the while, Rune was holding with comfort. That changed in the seventh game of the second set when, out of nowhere, Rune slipped from 40-15 ahead to deuce after a couple of errors. Sensing a chance, Djokovic stepped up the pressure to secure the break at the second attempt – Rune staving off the first with a forehand winner.
Even still, Rune kept battling, fighting back from 0-40 down on his own serve in a must-win game and saving six set points en route to a fabulously long and entertaining hold.
With Djokovic serving for the set, his 21-year-old opponent battled from 30-0 down to lead 30-40 with a break point chance. A rocket Djokovic serve and follow-up forehand saved it to bring things to deuce, before a backhand winner down the line and Rune hitting too long confirmed the second set for the 37-year-old.
As with the first, the third set did not start well for Rune, as he fell to 0-40 and was broken in the very first game.
The Dane pushed Djokovic hard in each of his next two service games to no avail, before a crucial sixth game in the set saw Rune force a break point, but Djokovic serve strongly in response to hold and move to 4-2.
After being pushed to the brink of being broken and back level, Djokovic then displayed his ruthlessness: breaking Rune in the very next game to move a game away from victory – and with it the chance to serve for the win.
That he duly did, as Rune had nothing left to fight back with.
“To all the fans that have respect and stayed here late tonight, thank you very much from the bottom of my heart – I appreciate it.
“And to all the people that chose to disrespect a great player, in this case me, have a gooooood night.
“I don’t accept it. I know they were cheering for Rune, but that’s an excuse to also boo.
“I’ve been on the tour for more than 20 years, so trust me, I know all the tricks and how it works.
“It’s fine. I’ll focus on the respectful people that pay the ticket to come and watch tonight, that love tennis and appreciate the effort that the players put in here.
“I’ve played in much more hostile environments, trust me. You guys can’t touch me.”
De Minaur, Djokovic’s next opponent, appeared to be in some discomfort as he hobbled off following his match-winning point vs Fils, the ninth seed insisting he will “be alright” in his post-game interview.
“The atmosphere was unbelievable,” De Minaur said courtside. “I can be proud of myself to be in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon, playing in front of you guys, so thank you.”
“I definitely made it a lot harder than I should have. Happy to get through. Great job mentally to stay with it even though I couldn’t serve at the end. I couldn’t hold my serve, I just backed my returns instead and on to the next.
“I’m just excited to be in the quarter-finals, have another battle and give myself a shot. One thing you can definitely count on is me going out there, trying my hardest and playing my heart out.”
Taylor Fritz showed tremendous heart as he prevailed in the battle of the big serves to come from two sets down to stun Alexander Zverev in a thriller.
The American came through 4-6 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 in three-and-a-half hours to advance to his second quarter-final appearance at Wimbledon, where the 13th seed will take on 25th-seeded Lorenzo Musetti following the Italian’s victory over lucky loser Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard earlier on Monday.
“It was amazing to do that on Centre Court, to do that from two sets down,” said Fritz in his on-court interview.
“The thing was I felt like I was still playing really well while being two sets down, I was just thinking ‘it sucks to be playing this well and lose three straight so let’s take the third’. I had that belief, I really felt like I was playing good tennis.
“I felt like I could take it one set at a time and turn it around.”
Zverev, who has spoken this week about the lengths he has gone to improve his serve, saw his supremacy from the baseline continue as he surged to the opening two sets to leave himself on course for a first Wimbledon quarter-final appearance.
Fritz, though, remained undeterred and became the first player to break the Zverev serve this tournament on his way towards taking the third set. He rallied again to edge the first serve win percentage while being the more effective player at the net to claim the fourth and send it to a decider.
From there he never looked back, racing out to a 4-1 lead on his way towards clinching a famous win and a place in the final eight.
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