Page 16 - aruba-today-20220704

A16 sports
Monday 4 July 2022
Wimbledon wild-card entry steals set, not win, from Djokovic

By HOWARD FENDRICH fourth, and the match, a and seventh overall, title at
AP Tennis Writer 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 result that Wimbledon, not to mention
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) gave the tournament's No. a 21st major champion-
— Even knowing what a 1 seed a 25th consecutive ship, will continue Tuesday
chaotic Wimbledon this grass-court victory at the All against No. 10 seed Jannik
has been, what with so England Club and a place Sinner of Italy.
many unexpected results in his 13th Wimbledon quar- Sinner reached his first
and new faces popping terfinal. quarterfinal at the All Eng-
up, and so few top seeds Beforehand, van Rijthoven land Club by eliminating
— and fewer major cham- had said: "I'll go into that No. 5 Carlos Alcaraz 6-1,
pions — remaining, surely match thinking I can win." 6-4, 6-7 (8), 6-3 earlier.
Novak Djokovic would not Might have still had that The other quarterfinal on
lose to a wild-card entry sense Sunday evening. their half of the bracket will
making his Grand Slam de- Eventually, though, the only be No. 9 Cam Norrie of Brit-
but, would he? true question was whether ain against unseeded Da-
If it did not quite seem Serbia's Novak Djokovic falls while attempting to return the ball Djokovic would wrap this vid Goffin of Belgium. They
to Tim van Rijthoven of the Netherlands during a men's fourth
plausible, it did at least be- round singles match on day seven of the Wimbledon tennis one up in time, because each advanced by beat-
come vaguely possible a championships in London, Sunday, July 3, 2022. there is an 11 p.m. curfew ing Americans: Norrie beat
tad past 9:30 p.m. on Sun- Associated Press (he closed the deal with 20 No. 30 Tommy Paul 6-4, 7-5,
day night under the closed minutes to spare). 6-4 to get to his first major
roof at Centre Court, when to smack a 133 mph ace 12 of the next 15 points, and They did not begin playing quarterfinal, and Goffin
25-year-old Dutchman Tim past Djokovic and even the next three games, both until 8 p.m., in part due to edged No. 23 Frances Tia-
van Rijthoven — ranking: their fourth-round match at plausibility and possibility a delay of roughly an hour foe 7-6 (3), 5-7, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5
104th; lifetime tour-level vic- a set apiece. took a hike. Soon enough, at the start of this special over more than 4 1/2 hours.
tories: eight, all in the past All of nine minutes later, the the third set was his, and afternoon — the first time The rest of the fourth round
month — had the temerity time it took Djokovic to grab not much later, so was the in history the tournament's is Monday, and the only
middle Sunday held sched- men left in the field who
uled play — while a cer- ever have participated
emony was held to honor in a Grand Slam final are
the 100 years of Centre Djokovic and 22-time major
Court. champion Rafael Nadal.
Djokovic was among the They are also the only men
many past champions still around ranked in the
who took part, joking to top 10.
the crowd when it was his It's a similarly unfamiliar col-
turn to speak, "Gosh, I feel lection of players chasing
more nervous than when the women's champion-
I'm playing." ship, with just one who has
If he was, indeed, jittery at appeared in a Grand Slam
all at a set apiece many final (two-time major title
hours later against van Ri- winner Simona Halep, who
jthoven, it certainly did not plays Monday) and just
show. Didn't matter that two who were among the
van Rijthoven kept crank- top 15 seeds at Wimbledon
ing out huge serves, to the (No. 3 Ons Jabeur and No.
tune of 20 aces, including 4 Paula Badosa, who plays
a pair on second serves. Monday).
Didn't matter just how big Jabeur made it to the quar-
the cuts were that van Ri- terfinals at the All England
jthoven took with his flat Club for the second year
forehands. Didn't matter in a row with a 7-6 (9), 6-4
that the spectators, who victory against No. 24 Elise
love an underdog, were Mertens of Belgium. The
getting louder and louder other women moving on
as the second set came to Sunday are unseeded and
a close. Didn't matter that in unfamiliar territory, never
Djokovic slipped behind having been in any major
the baseline twice, landing quarterfinal.
first on his backside, later Jabeur next plays Marie
on his left knee and stom- Bouzkova of the Czech Re-
ach. public, while Tatjana Maria,
Djokovic, a 35-year-old 34, and Jule Niemeier, 22,
from Serbia, calibrated his will meet in an all-German
best-in-the-game returns, quarterfinal.
got his groundstrokes in fine Bouzkova topped Caroline
form — finishing with just 19 Garcia 7-5, 6-2, Maria de-
unforced errors, compared feated 2017 French Open
to 29 winners — and was in champion Jelena Ostap-
complete control, a step enko 5-7, 7-5, 7-5 after eras-
closer to all manner of im- ing two match points, and
portant numbers. His pursuit Niemeier beat Heather
of a fourth consecutive, Watson 6-2, 6-4.q