Djokovic powers through to avoid ‘Tuesday blues’

BEING scheduled to play last on Court One on “Manic Monday” is something Novak Djokovic is getting rather used to – and also getting rather fed up with.

A year after his 2017 fourth-round match was postponed by 24 hours into what is a designated “rest day” for the men, he narrowly avoided suffering the same fate again.

With South African Kevin Anderson taking almost 3½ hours to tame French showman Gael Monfils in a four-set thriller in the previous match, Djokovic was left with about two hours of daylight to complete his match against Karen Khachanov if wanted to avoid coming back yesterday again.

It was not until he walked off court after booking his place in the quarter-finals that he heard how close he had come to being bumped off Monday’s schedule.

“Post-match I heard that the organisers were planning to cancel my match if Monfils and Anderson went to a fifth. Luckily for me it didn’t happen,” Djokovic said after he romped to a 6-4 6-2 6-2 win to reach the last eight for a 10th time.

“The last couple of games I couldn’t really see the ball very clearly, it was getting very dark... so I had to hang in there.”

Djokovic was kept waiting in the wings until after 7pm local time before he could start swinging his racquet against the Russian but there was no stopping the Serb once he got on court.

Although he was broken twice in the opening set, Djokovic was rattling through the games at supersonic speed.

With the light fading fast, the 12th seed timed the conclusion to perfection, sealing victory at 8.50pm on his third match point after Khachanov dumped a tired backhand into the net to end a 20-stroke rally.

Djokovic faces Kei Nishikori in the quarter-finals today.

Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro returned to see off Frenchman Gilles Simon yesterday and reach the quarter-finals for the second time, but it was desperately hard work.

The fifth seed had led by two sets on Monday but Simon grabbed the third set before fading light ended play.

With world number one Rafael Nadal waiting for the winner, yesterday’s fourth set, played in much cooler conditions than the first three the day before, turned into a mini-epic before Del Potro eventually prevailed 7-6(1) 7-6(5) 5-7 7-6(5).