Djokovic advances into quarters, says he’s playing better than 2011 when he won the title
Two years ago, Novak Djokovic figured out the grass at Wimbledon and found himself holding the trophy at the All England Club for the first time. This year, by his own estimate, “I’m actually playing better tennis on grass than I played two years ago.”
Top-seeded Djokovic defeated No. 13 Tommy Haas 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (4) on Monday to advance to his 17th straight Grand Slam quarterfinal. He still hasn’t lost a set in the tournament.
“I feel good about myself in this moment,” Djokovic said. “I’m No. 1 in the world. I have no reason to be concerned about my game.”
Save a few tense moments in the third set, there was little cause for concern for the Serb, who is going for his seventh Grand Slam title this week.
He failed to serve out the match at 5-3 and wasted a match point in the next game before closing out the tiebreaker with a forehand winner on his fourth match point. He has yet to drop a set in this tournament.
“It was a great match from my side,” Djokovic said. “Minor setback in the third set. I allowed him an opportunity to come back to the match. But a great tiebreak and I’m really glad to finish in three.”
On Wednesday, Djokovic faces No. 7 Tomas Berdych, who reached his first Wimbledon quarterfinal since he was the runner-up in 2010 by beating Bernard Tomic 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4.
Djokovic’s quarterfinal streak is the third longest all time behind Roger Federer’s 36 and Jimmy Connors’ 27 straight appearances in the final eight. Federer’s streak ended when he was upset in the second round last week.
The Federer loss, combined with Rafael Nadal’s first-round departure and a number of other upsets created a wide-open feel on the side opposite Djokovic’s in the draw. No. 2 Andy Murray is the only player on that side left among the top 10 seeds.
But on Djokovic’s side, all four players seeded to be in the quarterfinals have made it: The winner of Djokovic-Berdych will play the winner of another quarterfinal between No. 4 David Ferrer and No. 8 Juan Martin del Potro.
Struggling with a sore big toe, Ferrer beat Ivan Dodig, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (6), 6-1, 6-1, while del Potro overcame a sore left knee, which he hyperextended on Saturday, to top 23rd-seeded Andreas Seppi, 6-4, 7-6 (2), 6-3.
“I think in these kind of matches, in quarterfinals, all the players feel something,” del Potro said.
If Djokovic is feeling anything, it isn’t showing. He said his history against Haas — he’s 0-2 against the German on grass — made him a little nervous coming into the match.
“I just wanted to kind of focus on my game and what I want to do,” Djokovic said. “I started extremely well. That was obviously helping me to feel confident on the court.” Polish day On one of Poland’s best days on the tennis court, one of Poland’s best players gave a shout-out to none other than ... America’s Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.
Hard to blame Jerzy Janowicz for that.
Truth is, apart from Wojtek Fibak, a wily doubles foe of John McEnroe’s who made three Grand Slam singles quarterfinals in 1980, there aren’t many luminaries to choose from on the list of Poland’s greatest men’s tennis stars.
“Yeah, it’s unbelievable what’s going on right now,” Janowicz said after beating Jurgen Melzer of Austria 3-6, 7-6 (1), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 at Wimbledon on Monday to become Poland’s first men’s Grand Slam quarterfinalist since Fibek.
Janowicz’s next opponent: That would be lukasz Kubot, whose five-set win over Adrian Mannarino of France ended minutes after Janowicz’s victory, thus making him Poland’s second men’s Grand Slam quarterfinalist in 33 years.
Kubot celebrated by walking to the far end of the service line, then doing his own version of the can-can, high-stepping it across the court before falling into the arms of his coach and friends in the stands.
“My (coaches) told me that every time I’m going to play on the big courts, the big tournaments, big events, I should do the can-can after a win,” Kubot said. “So I’ve had no other chances and I had to do it.”
Janowicz, the 22-year-old who said he grew up wanting to be like Sampras and Agassi, will meet Kubot on Wednesday and the winner will become Poland’s first men’s Grand Slam semifinalist.
Though Janowicz vaulted nearly 200 spots in the rankings when he made the finals at the 2012 Paris Masters — “I gave answer to this question about 58 times,’” he said when asked how that changed his life — this is only his fifth Grand Slam tournament.