Djokovic still angry about delay despite easy victory

After the light-hearted ‘Djoker’ returned in Eastbourne, it was a more irritable Novak Djokovic that navigated his way to a ninth Wimbledon quarter-final yesterday on a dank day at SW19.

Djokovic and his opponent Adrian Mannarino took to Centre Court harbouring frustrations at their match being held over from Monday, and over the course of his 6-2, 7-6, 6-4 win, Djokovic’s mood became as dark as the threatening Wimbledon skies.

The Serb was edgy throughout, and complained bitterly to the umpire Carlos Bernardes about the state of the court, as well as receiving a medical timeout for a shoulder injury and having to take painkillers for a headache in the first set.

Starting with Monday’s mishap when he and Mannarino waited and waited for the end of Rafael Nadal’s epic against Gilles Muller on No 1 Court and then did not play any of their fourth-round match despite Centre Court being free from 7pm, Djokovic said: “We spoke with the referee, supervisors, trying to understand the thought process that they are having. I just think it was a wrong decision not to play us last night, because we could have played. I think the last match on the Centre Court was done before 7pm. Bearing in mind that Centre Court has the roof and lights, we could have played till 11pm.”

Djokovic’s agitation on Monday was deepened by the fact that it was his third wedding anniversary, prompting his annoyed wife to tweet on Monday: “Hmmm. Change of plans again @Wimbledon?”

As for the state of the court, Djokovic was repeatedly picking up tufts of loose grass yesterday and claimed that the baseline and service lines were particularly bad. He said: “I mentioned to the umpire that there was a hole by the service line, and he just asked me to show him and I did. He was not very pleased to see that. The courts honestly are not that great this year and many players feel the same.”

Djokovic was more sanguine about the state of his shoulder, and said: “We’ll see. It’s something I’ve been dragging back and forth for a while but I’m still managing to play which is the most important thing.”

His quarter-final opponent is the 11th seed Tomas Berdych, whom Djokovic has beaten on 25 of the 27 occasions the pair have met.

It’s been a testing couple of days, but surely another victory today would be enough to raise a smile from the Serb?