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Novak Djokovic’s blockbuster third-round match against three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka turned into one-way traffic on Centre Court for much of Friday evening.
Despite a late start and a late surge from Wawrinka, the seven-time champion Djokovic avoided the possibility of the match carrying over to Saturday by defeating the Swiss star 6-3, 6-1, 7-6(5) at just past 10:45 p.m.
“I have to say that it’s amazing what Stan is doing. Still his age, after several surgeries. We are two old guys fighting with the young guns, I think it’s important to acknowledge that,” Djokovic said in his on-court interview. “It’s amazing. It’s inspiring. Like Andy [Murray], he was forced to drop [in] the rankings in the last couple of years [and is] trying to build his ranking.
“We’ve had some amazing battles on the biggest courts in the sport. I respect Stan a lot as a player, I really love him as a person. He’s an extremely nice guy. So I wish him all the best for the for the rest of the season.”
After winning his second-round clash Thursday, Wawrinka made clear he did not believe he would upset the second seed. “Hopefully I can make a competitive match, but if you will look at recent results, I don’t really stand a chance,” he said.
The former World No. 3’s words proved prophetic. Wawrinka battled back to hold from 0/40 in his first service game of the match, but the adversity was a sign of things to come. Djokovic was laser-focussed en route to beating his opponent and the 11 p.m. curfew under the lights.
Wawrinka has as much firepower as any player on Tour, which he has used to defeat Djokovic at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and the US Open (only Roger Federer has defeated the Serbian at all four majors). But Djokovic absorbed all of Wawrinka’s aggression without appearing in difficulty, and always seemed to be a step ahead in rallies in the first two sets.
After Djokovic earned his second service break of the second set, Wawrinka quietly flicked his hands in the air in exasperation, wondering what he could do to turn the match around.
The Swiss showed his champion’s spirit in the third set, raising his level to make a match of it to the crowd’s delight. But despite winning four consecutive points in the third-set tie-break to turn a 1/3 deficit to a 5/3 advantage, he was unable to force a fourth set as his first serve deserted him. His first delivery proved problematic throughout the match, as he only landed 42 per cent of them against one of the best returners in history.
Djokovic buckled down when he needed to, advancing after two hours and six minutes less than 15 minutes before curfew. He is now 18-4 in tie-breaks this year and 3-0 in this edition of The Championships.
“He was two points away from extending this match to another day. Coming into the court today, we knew that it was going to be really tight to finish the match today,” Djokovic said. “One of us had to win in straight sets and it looked very, very good for me the first two sets. Then he raised his level, I dropped mine a little bit. And yeah, [the] crowd got involved. It was a good atmosphere. And hopefully you guys enjoyed it.”
The 23-time major champion now leads Wawrinka 21-6 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series. This was just their third meeting since the 2016 US Open final, which the Swiss won.
Djokovic will next play 17th seed Hubert Hurkacz, who defeated 14th seed Lorenzo Musetti 7-6(4), 6-4, 6-4 earlier in the day. The Polish star arrived at Wimbledon having not won more than two consecutive matches since February in Marseille.
But Hurkacz has found his form on the London grass, winning all three of his matches in straight sets without dropping serve. Djokovic leads the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series 5-0, but needed four sets against Hurkacz in the third round of The Championships in 2019.
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