Djokovic defeated Mannarino 6-2, 7-6(5), 6-4 in the final fourth round match today after Wimbledon unfairly refused to let him finish his match yesterday on Center Court. As if that was not enough of an insult, they scheduled his match for the quarterfinals for the third match in a row.
We are talking about a 3-time Wimbledon champion here not some grass court novice. You would think they will let Federer or Murray play on Court 1 at least once and the fact that they play all their matches in the same conditions also gives them an unfair advantage.
I mean it’s just shameless stuff that they aren’t even trying to hide. But what they don’t seem to learn from experience is that these kinds of things only motivates Djokovic and makes him play better. And today he remarked how poor the condition of Center Court is this year so he probably doesn’t mind playing on Court 1.
He also played on Center Court today so at least he won’t have to adjust to Center Court again after three matches on Court 1 if he makes the semis.
As for his match today, I missed the first set and a half due to the changed starting time and he wasn’t playing that great when I joined but the important thing is that he recovered from a break down in the tiebreak and won in straight sets. Apparently, he was playing great in the first set and a half too.
The last eight beckons.@DjokerNole beats Adrian Mannarino 6-2, 7-6(5), 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals without dropping a set#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/HSJPxyWIl5
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 11, 2017
Djokovic has not lost a set since Eastbourne now and although the highest ranked player he played since then was Monfils he is looking quite good. There were still unforced errors against Mannarino but you won’t expect him to bring his best form yet and the main thing is that his fire and mojo seems to be back.
There is an injury concern now because he took an MTO against Mannarino for his old arm problem but hopefully, he can keep that at bay until the end of Wimbledon. He does not have a day before the quarterfinals to rest his arm now but he did have Sunday and Monday off.
He plays Berdych who he leads by an astonishing 25-2 in the head-to-head and if he can get through that he will have another day of rest. At least there are no irritating WTA matches tomorrow and the weather forecast is good so this time Djokovic should be able to finish his match.
The quarterfinal stage is where Djokovic usually raises his game when he is playing well and he needs to put in a good performance if he wants to be in good shape before facing Federer. But with Djokovic, it has been just one match at a time this Wimbledon and I am not looking past Berdych especially with the injury concern.
And besides, Federer still has to beat Raonic who he lost to last year.
Elsewhere in the Draw
Raonic beat Federer last year when Federer was struggling with an injury but you never know. Raonic has come under the radar a bit and had an impressive win over Zverev. He is a guy who plays with a lot of self-belief and can surprise you. I would say Federer is the favorite but Raonic is no pushover like Dimitrov.
Murray plays Querrey and as far as I’m concerned all Murray’s matches are boring but he is British so he plays every match on Center Court. I hope Querrey spoils the hopes of the biased Wimbledon organizers but I am not betting on it. Murray should win.
Finally, Muller plays Cilic and Cilic should definitely win that after Muller upset Nadal in that marathon match. Probably Cilic will win in straight sets or something.
Highlights