By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Novak Djokovic took treatment for an arm injury sweeping Adrian Mannarino, 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-4, to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
Photo credit: Ashley Western/CameraSport
Gritting his teeth, Novak Djokovic stretched back, shook his right arm and stared up at the translucent ceiling covering Centre Court.
All that activity occurred during a third-set medical time-out casting a cloud of concern over Djokovic, who streaked into his ninth Wimbledon quarterfinal with a biting baseline attack.
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Grimacing at times from pain in his right arm, Djokovic gritted through physical challenges and left-hander Adrian Mannarino, 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-4, advancing to his 39th career Grand Slam quarterfinal.
The three-time Wimbledon champion belted 36 winners and converted four of 10 break points sweeping the 29-year-old Frenchman for the second year in a row at The Championships.
Djokovic has not dropped a set in the tournament. In fact, he has not surrendered a set during this grass-court season. The last set Djokovic lost was a bagel dispensed by Dominic Thiem in the Roland Garros quarterfinals.
Djokovic, who warmed up for Wimbledon winning his fourth career grass-court title at Eastbourne, extended his grass-court winning streak to eight straight matches.
The 30-year-old Serbian set up a quarterfinal clash with Tomas Berdych tomorrow. The 11th-seeded Czech turned back the eighth-seeded Thiem in five sets yesterday.
The Djokovic-Berdych head-to-head history has been only slightly more competitive than the Harlem Globetrotters vs. Washington Generals with Djokovic winning their last 12 meetings and holding a dominant 25-2 edge overall.
However, Berdych could be invigorated by the fact Djokovic seems to be wounded, will be playing for the second straight day and the big-hitting Berdych beat Djokovic in the 2010 Wimbledon semifinals before bowing to Rafael Nadal in the final.
"He beat me here in semis in 2010. It was I think his first Grand Slam final," Djokovic said. "Obviously he's been around many years. He's an established top-10 player, big game, flat shots, which are pretty good for this surface obviously where the ball bounces quite low.
"He's someone that understands the occasion of playing big matches, big tournaments. He will not get overwhelmed by the stadium or whatever. He's been there so many years. He's got experience. So, I mean, for me, it's important to start off well. I've played him many times. I know what I need to do. Hopefully I can execute that."
A straightforward scoreline doesn’t fully detail the physical complications Djokovic faced in a match that was scheduled for Manic Monday, but was postponed due to the length of Gilles Muller’s five-set epic upset of Rafael Nadal last night.
During the first set Djokovic called for the trainer and took two tablets.
Calling for successive medical time-outs in the third set, Djokovic received deep massage on his right arm as the trainer worked on his right elbow and shoulder. The 12-time Grand Slam champion has been bothered by elbow and shoulder issues over the past year, including withdrawing from the Miami Open in March due to a cranky elbow.
Despite all that—and a second-set spike in his opponent’s level of play—the three-time champion controlled the center of the court for much of the match.
Serving at 2-5, Mannarino badly bungled an overhead at 40-30—compounding a between the legs attempt a point earlier—and clutched his lower back in apparent pain. The Frenchman saved a set point when Djokovic missed a backhand down the line.
Stretching his opponent in crosscourt rallies, Djokovic drew an errant backhand breaking for the second time to snatch the 37-minute opening set.
Mixing his slice backhand with his two-handed drive, Djokovic slide a slice down the line drawing a netted reply to break for a 2-0 second-set lead.
Gnawing pain seemed to agitate Djokovic, who burst out of the blocks winning eight of the first 10 games, but appeared to strain his right ankle. Stomping his right foot on the grass before serving, Djokovic punished a roundhouse forehand winner down the line extending his lead to 3-0.
Sixty-three minutes into the match it looked like Mannarino might be content with a fourth-round result before riding off into the rain.
Then Djokovic hit a lapse uncorking his first double fault to face double break point. Djokovic erased the first with an ace, but in a wonderful, lengthy exchange Mannarino pulled the string beautifully on a drop shot drawing the Serbian to net where he nudged a reply into net.
The left-hander was back on serve at 3-4, while Djokovic draped a towel over his face and emoted frustration on the changeover.
The flat two-handed backhand is Mannarino’s most distinctive strike. Launching himself airborne, he cracked a leaping two-hander, Marcel Rio-style, that a sliding Djokovic could not touch. Hooking a forehand winner down the line, the 51st-ranked Frenchman wrapped a stylish service hold for 5-all.
In the tie break, Mannarino won both points on Djokovic’s serve then revisited his leaping backhand—only this time he carved under the ball for a creative drop shot winner opening a 4-2 lead.
Drifting forward, Djokovic dropped a gorgeous one-handed backhand volley winner to get back on serve. Back-to-back backhand errors and a sprayed forehand from Mannarino gave the second seed a pair of set points.
On his second set point, Djokovic slashed his third ace to seal the set. Screaming in triumph, Djokovic threw a clenched fist toward his box as coach Andre Agassi stood in support in his box.
Fending off a couple of break points, Mannarino held to open the third set.
Two games later, Djokovic buried a backhand in the corner for more break points. Sliding into a stretch, Djokovic stuck his two-hander down the line breaking for 2-1 with an energetic scream. Dotting the baseline with another backhand down the line, Djokovic extended to 3-1.
Following the fifth game, Djokovic took treatment on his right arm. The trainer massaged his elbow, forearm and biceps as Djokovic leaned back in his court-side seat.
On the next changeover, Djokovic took his second straight medical timeout with the trainer vigorously massaging his biceps and shoulder as Djokovic sucked down some water.
On his third match point, Djokovic traded with Mannarino in a baseline exchange before drawing a slapped forehand into the middle of the net completing a two hour, 13-minute victory.