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Querrey shocks Djokovic At Wimbledon

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Querrey shocks Djokovic At Wimbledon

Novak Djokovic’s dream of completing the calendar year Grand Slam has ended.

American Sam Querrey, the No. 28 seed, shocked the tennis world by knocking off the World No. 1 and three-time Wimbledon champion on Saturday, overcoming four rain delays, to win 7-6(6), 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(5).

“It’s incredible, especially to do it here at Wimbledon,” Querrey said in a BBC interview after the match. “I’m just so ecstatic.”

It’s the first time Djokovic has lost at a Grand Slam championship since June 2015, when he fell to Stan Wawrinka in the Roland Garros final. The loss also snaps Djokovic’s streak of 30 consecutive Grand Slam match wins, the best of the Open Era. Djokovic, who had won six of the past eight Grand Slam championships, hadn’t lost this early at a Grand Slam since 2009 when he fell in the Roland Garros third round to Philipp Kohlschreiber.

But the top seed downplayed feeling the pressure of trying to achieve history. “I don’t think it played a big of a factor, to be honest. Coming into this match, I knew that it was going to be very close, not easy to break his serve. If he’s on a roll, as he was, it’s really hard to read his serve. He hits his spots really well,” Djokovic said. “He was aggressive, and it paid off… He just overpowered me.”

For Querrey, the 28-year-old California native, the upset marks the biggest win of his 11-year career. Querrey has shown strong form, winning eight ATP World Tour titles, including at Delray Beach earlier this season. But he’s never reached past the fourth round of a Grand Slam and had been 0-8 in all prior meetings with a No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

Read also: Muguruza crashes out of Wimbledon

Querrey moves into the fourth round at a Grand Slam for the second time atWimbledon (also 2010) and the fourth time overall (US Open 2008, 2010). He next will face Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, who beat countryman and doubles partnerPierre-Hugues Herbert 7-6(5), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to move into the fourth round at a Grand Slam for the first time. Mahut leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 2-0, including a win against him last month at the Ricoh Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

Djokovic led his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against Querrey 8-1 but this was their first meeting on grass, and Querrey was aggressive from the get-go when their match began on Friday. He sought to blast first serves past Djokovic and take chances with his forehand. Querrey won the first-set tie-break and sprinted to a two sets to zero lead by stealing the second set in 22 minutes.

The match was then suspended because of rain. When it resumed on Saturday afternoon, Djokovic looked like his old self. He successfully engaged Querrey in back-and-forth rallies and dashed to a 4-0 lead before another rain delay, which lasted two hours, again halted play. Querrey gained a late break but Djokovic grabbed the third set 6-3.

In the fourth set, however, Querrey showed newfound resolve, playing some of his best tennis on break points. Querrey erased three break points to start the set with a hold and saved three more to get to 2-1. Serving at 4-all in the fourth, Querrey saved two more break-point chances with aces to get to deuce. It was the fourth and fifth times he had saved break points with aces during the fourth set. The American would finish with 31 aces for the match.

But Djokovic, on his 12th break-point opportunity of the set, crushed a forehand winner for a 5-4 lead, and it looked like regular order would resume. Djokovic, after all, had come back from two sets down four previous times, including against Kevin Anderson during the fourth round of last year’s Wimbledon.

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