Novak Djokovic made the Wimbledon fourth round for the 15th time on Friday, beating old rival Stan Wawrinka and a night-time curfew as Andy Murray hinted his All England Club days might be over.
Djokovic, chasing a record-equaling eighth Wimbledon title and 24th career Grand Slam crown, came through 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (7/5) against 38-year-old Wawrinka.
World No. 2 Djokovic next faces Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz, who he has defeated five times in as many meetings, for a place in the quarter-finals.
Photo: AFP
Friday’s win was Djokovic’s 21st in 27 meetings with Wawrinka, a three-time major champion who famously defeated the Serb in the 2015 French Open and 2016 US Open finals.
Djokovic never faced a break point under the Centre Court roof and completed victory just 15 minutes before the 11pm All England Club curfew kicked in, ensuring they did not have to return yesterday.
“Stan’s doing an amazing job for his age — we are two old guys,” said 36-year-old Djokovic, who went level with Pete Sampras’s mark of 31 successive wins at the tournament.
Photo: AFP
“We’ve had great battles over the years. I respect him as a player and love him as a person. He’s a really nice guy,” he said.
Djokovic’s win kept him on course for a championship match showdown with world No. 1 and US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz who defeated 84th-ranked Alexandre Muller of France 6-4, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3.
Twenty-year-old Alcaraz faces Chile’s Nicolas Jarry for a spot in the last 16.
Meanwhile, Murray said he does not know whether he would return to Wimbledon after going down 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (2/7), 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 to fifth-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas in a 4 hour, 40 minute second-round epic.
The 36-year-old has not made the second week of a Grand Slam since reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2017.
“I don’t know,” former world No. 1 Murray said when asked if he would be back next year.
“Motivation is obviously a big thing. Continuing having early losses in tournaments like this don’t necessarily help with that,” he said.
Tsitispas fired 90 winners past Murray and goes on to face Laslo Djere of Serbia for a place in the last 16.
“It’s never easy against Andy. Everyone loves him here,” the 24-year-old Greek said.
Murray had been ahead two sets to one when the match was halted on Thursday due to the tournament curfew.
However, he was unable to maintain the momentum on Friday, despite not dropping serve in the match until the third game of the decider.
In the women’s singles, world No. 1 Iga Swiatek, the US Open and French Open champion, went through to the last 16 with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Petra Martic and next faces 14th-ranked Belinda Bencic.
Victory in that clash would give the 22-year-old Pole a place in the quarter-finals for the first time.
Second seed Aryna Sabalenka recovered from a set down to beat Varvara Gracheva, who recently switched nationality from Russia to France, 2-6, 7-5, 6-2.
Fifth-seeded Caroline Garcia became the fourth top 10 woman to be knocked out when she committed 53 unforced errors in a 7-6 (7/0), 4-6, 7-5 loss to Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic.
Taiwan did well in the first round of the women’s doubles, with Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching beating the US’ Angela Kulikov and Sophie Chang 6-3, 6-2.
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic defeated Russia’s Anna Blinkova and Varvara Gracheva 6-1, 6-2, while Wu Fang-hsien and China’s Lin Zhu ousted Belguim’s Maryna Zanevska and Ysaline Bonaventure 6-4, 6-4.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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