Djokovic sees the light after gloomy start
NOVAK dJOKOVIC spends his downtime during the Wimbledon fortnight meditating at a local Buddhist temple but he has been shaken violently from his Zen-like state by South African giant Kevin Anderson.
After breezing through the first week, swatting aside all comers without dropping a set, djokovic might have expected to power past 6ft 8in Anderson with relative ease. But the real world no 1 was not glimpsed until he was already two sets down and fighting to stay in the tournament.
As the sun set on SW19, djokovic hit a magnificent cross court forehand on the stretch to win the fourth set and even up proceedings.
With the skies darkening, All England Club chiefs deemed further action on Court no 1 impossible and decided against a move to play under the Centre Court lights, to the displeasure of a baying crowd.
Fans on Court no 1 who were enthralled by the contest booed when it was announced the match wouldn’t be completed — they had hoped at the least it would be moved to Centre Court under the roof, as happened when Gilles Simon and Gael Monfils were stopped by bad light on Saturday night.
But a Wimbledon spokesman said: ‘Ideally the tournament scheduling aims to finish a match on the court it started.
‘With no urgent need to finish the match, both djokovic and Anderson were happy to resume at 1pm on Court no 1 the next day.’
djokovic, who would have loved to get the job done, was left to return to his luxury rented home nearby and sleep on the prospect of a one- set shootout to earn the chance to continue his title defence.
Anderson has already produced one massive grass court shock this season, beating French Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka in the second round at Queen’s. now he is on the brink of an even bigger upset, 14 years since a top seed exited Wimbledon in the fourth round, when Pete Sampras lost to Roger Federer.
djokovic is bidding to reach the quarter finals for the 25th straight Grand Slam, but he was out of sorts in the first set. He double faulted to hand Anderson set point and the South African whacked down his seventh ace of the match to seal the tiebreak 8-6.
you might have expected the pressure to get to Anderson, who is bidding to be the first South African to make Wimbledon quarter finals for 21 years, but he held his nerve to get the first break in the second set before winning another tiebreak with a backhand volley.
djokovic really started to motor in the third set winning it in 24 minutes as Anderson’s massive serve went down a level and the world no 1 broke it twice.
The route to the fourth set was less straightforward, with Anderson hitting seven more aces to bring his total to the match to 32 as the light began to fade with the clock ticking past three hours for the match.
The winner will face Marin Cilic in the quarter final after he overcame denis Kudla in four sets.
The Croatian made no secret of who his preferred opponent would be. ‘I would rather play Anderson, for sure,’ he said. djokovic may have something to say about that.