Novak Djokovic beat Adrian Mannarino in a delayed fourth round match 6-2, 7-6, 6:4. He will now face Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals. Now that Nadal's gone, the Serb is the only one left in the draw who can endanger Andy Murray's top spot on the ATP list. In order for that to happen, he obviously needs to win a title, while Murray must loose his quarter-finals clash against Sam Querrey. Although this isn't likely to happen, Novak can be satisfied with his tennis at Wimbledon 2017 given the fact that he is yet to drop a set, making him the only one apart from Federer to achieve such a feat.
Should he clinch the title, that would be his 4th Wimbledon title and 13th Grand Slam title. What's even more important is that he would stop over a year long hiatus when it comes to winning a Grand Slam.
Novak Djokovic battles past Adrian Mannarino
Although the result might suggest otherwise, this match was nowhere close to the pure dominance of Novak Djokovic. Adrian Mannarino proved that it wasn't a coincidence that he found himself in the second week of a Grand Slam tournament. He got off to a shaky start in the first set of the match when Novak broke him twice. The Frenchman was able to bring an audience to the edges of their seats in the tie-break of the second set. However, Novak remained calm and he was able to eventually win the tiebreak 7-5.
Given the fact that Mannarino was so close to taking the second set, everyone expected the third set to be nothing but a routine for Novak.
Mannarino didn't give up so easily in the third set but Djokovic was able to break the Frenchman in the third game anyway. After that, the players held their service games which eventually led to Novak's victory even though he received two medical treatments because of a shoulder pain.
The last eight beckons.@DjokerNole beats Adrian Mannarino 6-2, 7-6(5), 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals without dropping a set#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/HSJPxyWIl5
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 11, 2017
Novak Djokovic to face Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals
It's all set for the 28th meeting between Djokovic and Berdych and the Serb seems to be an absolute favorite given their head-to-head record.
He leads 25-2, but Tomas did beat him here at Wimbledon in the semi-finals way back in 2010 before Djokovic launched himself to the number one spot with a stellar 2011 season. Berdych was able to beat Novak once again at 2013 Rome Masters, but since then Djokovic won 12 matches in the row. With the numbers like that it seems that nothing can stop Djokovic from beating Berdych for the 26th time. Let's just hope he will be 100% ready for tomorrow and that the injury will be a thing of a past so we can all enjoy the match.
