Djokovic eyes sweet 16 as Murray's Wimbledon career ends with whimper
Novak Djokovic will target the Wimbledon fourth round for the 16th time on Saturday as old rival Andy Murray's All England Club career ended on a low note when Emma Raducanu pulled the plug on their mixed doubles plans.
Djokovic is looking to equal Roger Federer's record of eight Wimbledon triumphs and claim a 25th Grand Slam title in total.
He barely broke sweat in his opening match but was pushed to four sets in his second encounter by British rookie Jacob Fearnley, who was still playing college tennis in the United States last month.
Just weeks after a right knee operation, Djokovic feels he is not yet fully up to speed.
"It's not where I want it to be," he said. "The longer I stay in the tournament, I think the better the chances that my movement will improve."
On Saturday, he tackles Alexei Popyrin, whom he beat in four sets at the Australian Open earlier this year.
With defending champion Carlos Alcaraz and top-ranked Jannik Sinner on the other side of the draw, and safely into the fourth round, Djokovic can see a clear path to a sixth straight final at the All England Club.
Popyrin, the world number 47, has never made the second week of a Slam.
Meanwhile, Murray's 19-year Wimbledon career finished with a whimper when Raducanu withdrew from their mixed doubles partnership.
Former world number one Murray, who will retire after the Paris Olympics, didn't play singles after failing to recover from surgery to remove a cyst from his spine.
On Thursday, he and brother Jamie were defeated in the first round of men's doubles.
Murray, the 2013 and 2016 Wimbledon champion, was scheduled to partner Raducanu in Saturday's last match on Court One.
"Unfortunately I woke up with some stiffness in my right wrist so therefore I have decided to make the very tough decision to withdraw from the mixed doubles tonight," said Raducanu in a statement.
Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion, faces New Zealand's Lulu Sun on Sunday for a place in the women's singles quarter-finals.
Djokovic's scheduled semi-final opponent Alexander Zverev was opening play on Centre Court against Cameron Norrie, the last British man in the singles tournament.
- Untroubled Zverev -
Zverev has dropped just 15 games in two rounds and boasts a 5-0 winning record over Norrie.
France's Ugo Humbert defeated Brandon Nakashima of the United States in four sets to set-up a last-16 clash with Alcaraz.
France's Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, who only made the main draw as a lucky loser from qualifying, has become the player nobody wants to face.
The 2.03 metre (6 feet 8 inches) world number 58 leads the ace count at Wimbledon with 78.
On top of that, the 20-year-old had saved all 13 break points he had faced before Saturday and was bidding to become the first lucky loser into the last 16 since Dick Norman in 1995.
"I'm happy to have this serve which helps me enormously," said Mpetshi Perricard, who faces Finland's Emil Ruusuvuori.
In the women's draw, five-time major winner Iga Swiatek has seen off all-comers during an impressive 21-match winning run.
On Saturday, she plays Yulia Putintseva, the diminutive Russian-born Kazakh who rankled the world number one earlier this year with her antics at Indian Wells.
Putintseva was ticked off by the chair umpire for moving from side to side as Swiatek shaped to serve.
Putintseva, who described herself in an interview with the WTA as "a gangster on court and angel off it", even threw in a collection of underarm serves.
"Maybe they teach that in Kazakhstan," said five-time major winner Swiatek who has yet to get past the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
Elsewhere, 2022 champion Elena Rybakina plays former world number one Caroline Wozniacki, while two-time runner-up Ons Jabeur takes on Elina Svitolina, a semi-finalist in 2023.
M.Stevenson--EWJ
Featured