Djokovic’s tie is left hanging in the balance

WIMBLEDON champion Novak Djokovic’s title defence was hanging in the balance after a major fright for the Serbian.

He fell two sets behind against big-serving South African Kevin Anderson but had levelled the fourth-round match when fading light brought play to a halt on Court One.

Anderson had taken the first two sets on tie-breaks, setting up the possibility of a major upset, before improving Djokovic battled back to make the scoreline 6-7 (6/8), 6-7 (6/8), 6-1, 6-4 overnight.

Tournament officials ruled out the prospect of moving the match to finish on Centre Court, where lighting under the roof allows matches to continue until an 11pm curfew.

Although the match between Gilles Simon and Gael Monfils was moved to complete on the main show court on Saturday night, a tournament spokesperson said that was because of Sunday’s rest day, and the urgency to avoid the match being held over to Monday.

Canadian Vasek Pospisil reached his first grand slam quarter-final by upsetting Viktor Troicki on Court 12, fighting back from two sets behind to oust the Serbian 22nd seed 4-6, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. He plays Andy Murray in the last eight.

French Open champion Stan Wawrinka awaits Ricahrd Gasquet in the quarter-finals, which for the men take place tomorrow. Wawrinka was made to toil for his win over David Goffin of Belgium, with the Swiss fourth seed edging through 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (9/7), 6-4.

Roger Federer made smooth progress through to a 13th Wimbledon quarter-final as the Swiss second seed brushed aside Roberto Bautista Agut, winning 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 to set up a crack at Gilles Simon.

Frenchman Simon was a surprisingly comfortable 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 victor against Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych.

Federer felt he had performed well, but played down the suggestion his display was a statement.

“I don’t think I made a statement. It was nice to play a base liner after two big servers,” Federer said. “I did a nice job making the transition.

“It was a good match. I got off to a good start and kept rolling. Obviously maybe Roberto wasn’t at his very best.”

Bautista Agut had an injury break during the second set but carried on.

Croatia’s US Open champion Marin Cilic reached the last-eight stage with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win against American Denis Kudla. Cilic will tackle whoever survives the one-set shoot-out between Djokovic and Anderson which is first up on Court One today, the latter being the man who will surely benefit most from the interruption after the champion began to justify his status.