Story highlights
Djokovic trailed 7-6 6-1
Last year came back against Kevin Anderson
Djokovic has won four straight majors
He is the best tennis player in the world – but Novak Djokovic is in trouble at Wimbledon against an American who once appeared on the dating show “Millionaire Matchmaker.”
Djokovic, who became the first man to win four consecutive grand slams since 1969 when he won last month’s French Open, trailed big-server Sam Querrey 7-6 (8-6) 6-1 in the third round when rain forced off the players shortly after 8 p.m. local time in southwest London.
The Serb rallied from 2-5 in the first-set tiebreak to level at 5-5, but instead of closing out the opener – as expected – it was Querrey who grabbed the one-set advantage. From 6-6, Querrey’s attacking tennis prompted a pair of Djokovic backhand errors. A lethargic looking Djokovic was broken twice in the second.
Perhaps, then, the rain saved him.
Djokovic faced a similar scenario last year in the fourth round. He fell behind two sets to another player with a powerful delivery, Kevin Anderson, won the next two and had to return the next day to see off the South African.
Although the 41st-ranked Querrey possesses that serve and potent forehand and has always been considered dangerous, he has yet to pull off a sizable victory at grand slams. Indeed he lost the second longest singles match in Wimbledon history in 2012, falling to Marin Cilic in five hours, 31 minutes, and is seeking a maiden grand slam quarterfinal. He entered Wimbledon on the back of four straight defeats at majors.
READ: Djokovic completes slam collection
Djokovic led Querrey 8-1, too, in their head-to-head clashes.
A laid-back Californian, Querrey, 28, gained attention away from the court when he landed on “Millionaire Matchmaker” in 2015.
He’s been no stranger to freak injuries or unusual illnesses: Querrey badly hurt his forerarm when he fell through a glass table in Bangkok in 2009 and sustained an umbilical cord infection two years later.
The rain led organizers, later Friday, to schedule play on the middle Sunday, which is usually a day off. That last happened in 2004.
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