The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Novak Djokovic’s landmark 800th career victory sees him march on at Queen’s
Serb hails milestone and admits how grateful he is to have had such a great career
Novak Djokovic still has a burning desire to play tennis after racking up his 800th career win.
The Serb beat Adrian Mannarino 7-5 6-1 to reach the semi-finals of the FeverTree Championships at Queen’s, becoming just the 10th player in the open era to reach the landmark.
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are the other two of those players that are still active and despite two years of struggle, both with fitness and results, Djokovic has no plans to go anywhere anytime soon.
“It’s a milestone, and of course it’s a great achievement,” he said. “Every achievement is a great achievement. I should be happy for it and proud of it.
“When you work all your life for something and then you get rewards for it, of course it’s obviously very positive and I’m thrilled.
“I’m grateful, as well, as I’m able to play so many matches and to win so many matches in my career.
“It’s still the sport that I love with all my heart. I put in that heart every single day, and I’m just very glad to be able to play semi-finals here after Rome and Roland Garros tournaments that went pretty well for me.
“But before that, it was a struggle with surgery and elbow and up-and-downs and trying to figure things out and get that consistency in the game.
“So I’m really glad that I was able to play the way that I did in the first three matches in this tournament, and hopefully I can keep it going.
“I will play as long as I feel like playing and as long as I have support from up there and from down here.
“So hopefully I can have many more years, because I truly enjoy playing this sport. I’m just grateful because I’m able to do something that I really truly love and enjoy and be successful in.”
On this evidence against Mannarino, which followed an impressive win against Grigor Dimitrov on Thursday, Djokovic looks to be heading in the right direction and will be a contender at Wimbledon in a fortnight.
The three-time Wimbledon champion will next face France’s Jeremy Chardy, who beat American Frances Tiafoe 6-4 6-4.
Top seed Marin Cilic of Croatia and Australian Nick Kyrgios will meet in the other semi-final on Saturday. Kyrgios continued his impressive week at Queen’s by dethroning 2017 champion Feliciano Lopez. The Australian won a close contest 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-3).
Kyrgios, who has beaten Andy Murray and Kyle Edmund this week, has the wood over Lopez, having also got the better of him in Stuttgart last week.
He served 32 aces again, as he did in beating Edmund, matching his personal best.
Cilic, who reached last year’s Wimbledon final and was runner-up at this year’s Australian Open, beat American Sam Querrey 7-6 (7-3) 6-2.
World No 1 Roger Federer beat Australian Matthew Ebden 7-6 (7-2) 7-5 to reach the semi-finals of the Halle Open.