Dealing with injury, Djokovic advances
LONDON — Novak Djokovic might wish he had as much time to prepare for his next match as he did for his previous one.
A lingering right shoulder injury flared up in Djokovic’s victory over 51st-ranked Adrian Mannarino in the fourth round at Wimbledon on Tuesday, adding a measure of doubt to his quarterfinal match against 11th-seeded Tomas Berdych on Wednesday.
Djokovic, who won 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-4 under a closed roof at Centre Court, had his match delayed from the night before after Gilles Muller needed 4 hours, 48 minutes to defeat Rafael Nadal.
“It’s been something that I’ve been dragging back and forth for a while now,” said Djokovic, a three-time Wimbledon champion and 12-time Grand Slam winner. “But I’m still managing to play, which is the most important thing.”
Later, when asked in Serbian about the injury, Djokovic said through a translator: “I don’t want to talk about it.”
After Djokovic took a 4-3 lead in the third set, he called for a medical timeout and had a trainer work on his right shoulder.
He also winced following the first serve of his third and final match point — a 24-shot rally that ended when Mannarino’s forehand went into the net.
The match between Djokovic and Mannarino originally was scheduled for No. 1 Court on Monday, but Muller’s victory, which ended after 8:30 p.m., led to the decision to push it back a day.
Djokovic said he and Mannarino were in communication with tournament organizers throughout the evening. They were told fan safety was the reason why they did not move the match to Centre Court, which was vacant after Roger Federer’s three-set victory over Grigor Dimitrov.
“I just think it was a wrong decision not to play us last night, because we could have played,” Djokovic said. “I think the last match on the Centre Court was done before 7. Having in mind that Centre Court has the roof and lights, we could have played until 11. I just didn’t see any logic in not playing us on the Centre Court.”
Rain began to fall Tuesday about 30 minutes before Djokovic and Mannarino were to begin, and as others were suspended, they played the first match of the tournament under the roof.
One thing that did cause Djokovic concern was the appearance of what he called a “hole” in the middle of the court near the service line. After the match, he pointed out the spot to chair umpire Carlos Bernardes. “He wanted me to show him, so I showed him,” Djokovic said. “His reaction wasn’t that great.”
With the victory, Djokovic will be one of an event-record five quarterfinalists aged 30 or older, with Berdych, Federer, Muller and Andy Murray also advancing.
Berdych, who defeated Dominic Thiem on Monday, last beat Djokovic in Miami in 2013. Berdych also won in the Wimbledon semifinals in 2010, when he was the runner-up to Nadal.
Murray, the top-ranked player, will face 24th-seeded Sam Querrey, with the winner facing either Muller or Marin Cilic in the semifinals.
Querrey, who is from the United States, is in the quarterfinals for the second consecutive year, and has beaten Murray only once in eight previous meetings.
“The crowd is going to be behind him,” Querrey said, “but sometimes, it’s fun to go out there and play where the crowd is behind the other player 100 percent.”