Novak Djokovic came back from two sets down to get the job done when his last 16 match against Kevin Anderson resumed on No.1 Court on Tuesday for a one-set shootout.
The encounter was suspended just after 9pm on Monday as the twilight gathered, and then again for half an hour or so when it rained at 1pm on Tuesday. Once matters resumed, the high-quality battle became entrenched in much the same way as it had been throughout the opening two sets of the match. But the South African will surely rue the two break points he did not convert early on – and he will rue even more the successive double-faults which allowed the defending champion to secure the crucial break for 6-5.
This was one of the most difficult matches I've ever played here
Djokovic clinched victory on his first match point, 6-7(6), 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-4, 7-5 in three hours and 48 minutes. He will play Marin Cilic, who has never beaten him in 12 attempts, for a place in the last four.
“Kevin served exceptionally well,” said the No.1 seed. “I really congratulate him – it wouldn’t be undeserved if he wins this match. It was good to play another hour on a match court but it was far, far more difficult than a simple workout, let me tell you.
“This was one of the most difficult matches I have ever played here. At times I was almost helpless with my return. I tried to defend and use the opportunities when they were presented. I didn’t get many. It was high-quality tennis in the fifth set. I could have been out of it on Monday.”
For Djokovic, sets three and four of this match were as straightforward as the opening two were fruitless. Of course, logic based on respective career achievement dictated that the eight-time Grand Slam champion would duly close out the match when the time came – but in fact this one was fascinatingly poised.
For a good while on Monday evening, Planet Tennis juddered on its axis as the largely unheralded Anderson threatened to produce not just the shock of The Championships but the entire year.
The 6ft 8in ace machine was runner-up to Andy Murray at Queen’s before Wimbledon but, all the same, few forecast that the No.14 seed would produce this kind of all-out attacking display. His concentration and focus throughout the first two sets were truly awe-inspiring to witness – but the effort came at a price, and the well seemed to run dry the moment the third set got underway. Such was the instant shift in momentum that it seemed certain he would have lost in five, were it not for the light failing.
Yet it cannot be overstated that for most of the first two hours of the match on Monday evening, it seemed that this would be the first Grand Slam since Roland Garros 2009 – and the first Wimbledon for a year longer than that – in which the last eight would not feature Djokovic. It was all the more astonishing given that Anderson had been unable to take so much as a set from the Serb in four previous meetings, with his one victory in 2008 a distant memory.
Moreover, Anderson himself was trying to avoid creating an unhappy benchmark of becoming the first player since the game turned professional to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam on seven separate occasions without ever making it to the quarter-finals. Little wonder Djokovic’s joy on winning came with a large dose of plain old relief.
“To come back and win in five gives me great satisfaction and confidence for the next challenge,” he said. “As we finished at 9pm, it takes a lot of time for adrenaline rush to settle down – hours and hours to be able to fall asleep. What matters is that I survived. The fifth set was very frustrating, very tense. Until the last point, I didn’t know if I was going to win or not. But I’m through.”
By coincidence, one of his 12 victories over Cilic came in last year’s quarter-finals. Now they play at the same stage again.
