Djoker edges Fedex in battle for Centre Court
London, July 10: Novak Djokovic won his battle to be promoted to Centre Court billing for Wednesday’s quarterfinals, forcing eight- time champion Roger Federer off the sport’s most famous arena for the first time in three years.
Three- time champion Djokovic will open the Centre Court programme against Kei Nishikori followed by two- time winner and world number one Rafael Nadal facing Juan Martin del Potro.
Defending champion Federer, who has played all of his Wimbledon matches since the 2015 semi- finals on Centre Court, will instead open proceedings on Court One against Kevin Anderson.
The other last- eight tie, between Milos Raonic and John Isner, finishes off the Court One schedule. Djokovic has featured just once on Centre Court — against British home favourite Kyle Edmund in the last 32 — in the opening four rounds.
By contrast, Federer and Nadal have played exclusively on the 15,000- seater Centre Court.
Djokovic had told reporters that he had been hopeful of playing his quarter- final match on Centre Court before telling Serbian media that he “deserved” the honour and intended to lobby the All England Club. Djokovic has played twice on the 11,000- capacity Court One this year but was shunted off to the 4,000- seater Court Two for his second round clash against Horacio Zeballos.