Djokovic drops set, tops wild-card entry |
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WIMBLEDON, England (AP) Even knowing what an unusual Wimbledon this has been, what with so many unexpected results and new faces popping up, and so few top seeds - and major champions - remaining, surely Novak Djokovic would not lose to a wild-card entry making his Grand Slam debut, would he? If it did not quite seem plausible, it did at least become vaguely possible a tad past 9:30 p.m. on Sunday night under the closed roof at Centre Court, when 25-year-old Dutchman Tim van Rijthoven - ranking: 104th; lifetime tour-level victories: eight, all in the past month - had the temerity to smack a 133 mph ace past Djokovic and tie their fourth-round match at a set apiece. All of nine minutes later, the time it took Djokovic to grab 12 of the next 15 points, and the next three games, both plausibility and possibility took a hike. Soon enough, the third set was his, and not much later, so was the fourth, and the match, a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 result that gave the tournament's No. 1 seed a 25th consecutive grass-court victory at the All England Club and a place in his 13th Wimbledon quarterfinal. |
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