Wimbledon 2018: Nadal, Djokovic march into the quarter-finals
Rafael Nadal marched into his first Wimbledon quarter-final in seven years with an emphatic 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, victory over Czech Republic’s Jiri Vesely.
The world number one who came into the competition on the back of a 11th French Open title, showed no signs of fatigue demolishing the 93rd ranked Vesely, who found no answer to the brilliance of the 17-time Grand Slam champion.
Nadal is yet to drop a set in the first four matches of this Wimbledon and going by that, it looks inevitable that he might meet Roger Federer in the final for the first time since the 2008 classic.
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The second seeded Spaniard struck 37 winners to comfortably seal a last-eight meeting with Juan Martin Del Potro or Gilles Simon. The latter had knocked him out last year after an intriguing battle for over four hours.
Djokovic progress
Novak Djokovic ensured an align of stars in the quarterfinals after breezing past Karen Khachanov 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, in straight sets on Monday.
The Serbian who withdrew from last year’s quarter-final against Tomas Berdych because of an injury, now has the opportunity to win his first Wimbledon title since 2015.
The match began at 19:00 local time and showed enough signs of dragging the contest to the following day, but Djokovic was in a hurry and finished the match within an hour and 46 minutes.
He will next face Japanese Kei Nishikori.
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Kevin Anderson advanced to his first Wimbledon quarterfinal after edging past Gael Monfils 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2), 5-7, 7-6 (4).
The eight seeded South African hit 20 aces on his to victory and will face Federer in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Japanese Kei Nishikori also advanced into the last-eight stage, beating Ernests Gulbis 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(10), 6-1 in a marathon match.
Seeded 24th Nishikori overcame an elbow strain that troubled him throughout the first set.
India’s Divij Sharan moves into the quarters
Divij Sharan reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinals joint hands with Artem Sitak to stage yet another dramatic comeback after being by down by two sets to defeat Jonathan Erlich and Marcin Matkowski at the Wimbledon Championships in London on Monday.
Sharan and New Zealand’s Sitak won 1-6, 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 after a gruelling men’s doubles third round which lasted three hours and fifty minutes.
It was for the second consecutive time that Sharan-Sitak combinaion came back from a two-set deficit to eke out a five-set victory.
Sharan had until now reached the third round of all the Grand Slams but this will be the first occasion, where he plays in the quarters.
They will next face the seventh seeded American pair of Mike Bryan and Jack Sock.