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Djokovic to Wimbledon quarterfinals, Sinner knocks out Alcaraz

London, Jul 3 (EFE).- Novak Djokovic continued his triumphant march at Wimbledon on Sunday, notching his 25th consecutive win at the London grand slam and is now heading to the quarterfinals after downing The Netherlands’ Tim van Rijthoven 6-2, 4-6 and 6-2.

The Serbian dynamo secured his win amid the threat that his match might not actually end on Sunday and be postponed until Monday due to the local curfew according to which play at the tournament must be halted at 11 pm.

The earlier match in which Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz was defeated by Italy’s Jannik Sinner had taken more than three-and-a-half hours, thus forcing Djokovic to take the court with less than three hours in which to try and finish off the Dutchman.

And he had no problems doing so, securing the win with 22 minutes to spare, although van Rijthoven had been invited to participate in the tournament due to his excellent record on grass courts.

Up until February, in fact, van Rijthoven had not been ranked among the world’s top-200 players. Since then, however, he has done brilliantly, making his way into the Wimbledon round of 16, although his momentum was not enough to enable him to power past the Serb.

It was Djokovic’s 25th consecutive Wimbledon win since losing to Tomas Berdych in 2017.

Next, the Serb will go up against the 20-year-old Sinner, who defeated Alcaraz in the second round on the central court. The pair have faced off only once in their careers, with Djokovic prevailing 6-4, 6-2 at the Montecarlo Masters 1,000 in 2021.

In the Alcaraz-Sinner contest, both players gave heart-pounding performances, with the Spaniard winning a third-set tiebreaker, although the Italian ultimately prevailed 6-1, 6-4, 6-7(8) and 6-3.

The fifth-seeded Alcaraz, 19, was the youngest player in the men’s draw and was trying to get to his third grand slam quarterfinal but Sinner finished him off in their first-ever encounter. EFE

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