Novak Djokovic grabbed a two-set lead in his fourth spherical match towards Hubert Hurkacz however solely after withstanding a ferocious barrage of aces from the Pole earlier than play was suspended at Wimbledon on Sunday.
The Serbian, bidding for a fifth successive Wimbledon title and eighth in all, edged two absorbing units on tiebreaks to steer 7-6(6), 7-6(6) and can certainly end the job on Monday.
Hurkacz rocketed down 23 aces together with one clocked at 141mph — the quickest serve of the event up to now.
Djokovic will sleep so much simpler than he may need finished if the seventeenth seed Hurkacz had taken the opening set after two aces noticed him to 6-3 within the tiebreak.
But the strain of making an attempt to place Djokovic away was an excessive amount of. Djokovic gained each his factors on serve to shut the hole after which returned a Hurkacz howitzer and the Pole might solely roll a forehand into the web.
Another forehand out over the baseline allowed Djokovic to bag the opening set.
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With the clock ticking in the direction of Wimbledon’s 11pm curfew, Djokovic hunted the break of serve within the second set that may have cracked Hurkacz’s resistance however each time he had a sniff of a break an ace flew previous him.
Hurkacz discovered himself 0-40 down at 3-4 however cracked down a few aces on the best way again to deuce solely to waft a volley out to present the second seed one other probability.
This time Hurkacz’s spinning volley crept over and Djokovic nearly fell over the web as he missed the put-away.
Another tiebreak arrived and Hurkacz gained a surprising baseline rally to avoid wasting a set level however two factors later he despatched a forehand out handy Djokovic a two-set lead.
With no probability of ending one other set, the gamers headed off to the locker room.
The winner will face Russian seventh seed Andrey Rublev within the quarter-finals.
Source: sportstar.thehindu.com