Novak Djokovic boosted by Kevin Anderson victory

The players will be taking to Court 1 shortly. People knew this was special.

It was high quality tennis in that fifth set.

Djokovic said: “Kevin served exceptionally well”.

Anderson blasted three aces in the opening game, after firing down 32 on Monday, before Djokovic held easily in the next.

You can bet that Djokovic had wished that the match had been settled in the twilight of Monday evening.

To Djokovic’s credit, he did not fold.

But Mother Nature got the final word.

“Playing him [Djokovic] is tough”.

Full marks to Anderson – who has yet to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final – for nearly getting there at Wimbledon, most glamorous major of all.

It was the same story in the second set, but this time, Djokovic seemed to have the edge as he took a 5-2 lead in the tie-break. Stan Wawrinka beat him in the final. Anderson had a different sort of consistency going. The last time they met at Wimbledon, Williams won in straight sets in the fourth round in 2010.

But Djokovic returned renewed on Tuesday afternoon breaking in the 11th game before serving out to seal a clash with Croatian number nine seed Cilic in the next round.

The 28-year-old will now face another big server – Croatia’s Marin Cilic – in the quarter-finals as he bids to retain his title. And Djokovic was fully rested then. Stupid mistakes. When he broke Anderson, he could not maintain the momentum. They flipped the coin and the rain began. “But it just wasn’t close enough”, said Anderson.

What made Djokovic the clear-cut favorite in this was that he was the world’s greatest returner. He fidgeted and paced.

In the previous three Wimbledon tournaments, Sharapova lost in the fourth round twice (2012, 2014) and in the second round once (2013). Would this end before Friday?

But Djokovic gutted it out, tying the Round of 16 confrontation at 2-2 before the match was suspended because of darkness, couldn’t see the ball anymore on Court 1.

But Anderson, whose ranking has gone to a career-best No. 14, momentarily reverted to a No. 135 guy. He was really aggressive, I tried to defend, tried to use the opportunities on second serves. Both played with their very best, but only one needed to be excellent. “That’s all I could influence”.

A Wimbledon spokesman said that the Referee’s Office is looking into the ball girl incident.

When asked if she thought the umpire was too scared to talk to Sharapova about the issue, Vandeweghe replied: “Well I didn’t hear anything said”.

‘I was pretty close to her. I’m definitely going to try to apologise to her if I did something wrong.’. By virtue of a single break, he squeaked through the fourth set 6-4. Even against this South African tower of power, Djokovic with two shots at it was a Vegas wager. Six-foot-8 does not bend down well.

The games went with serve to 5-4, with Djokovic needing all his focus as he served to stay in the match. “I find that this was one of the most hard matches I’ve played at Wimbledon, maybe in my career”.

“The plus is that on grass the matches aren’t as long – a five-setter in New York takes a bit more of a toll on your body than here – but Vasek has spent quite a lot of time on the court so far and that can be mentally draining”.