Djokovic, Federer Storm Into Wimbledon QFs While Zverev, Rublev Fall

Favorites Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer both rolled into yet another Wimbledon quarterfinal. On a busy final “Manic Monday”, Djokovic won his 18th straight match at Wimbledon crushing an overmatched Cristian Garin 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.

Djokovic, who is 18-0 in Slams this year, reached his 50th career Slam quarterfinal.

“I am happy, particularly with the match today. After the third round, it was kind of up and down for me,” Djokovic said. “Today was a very solid performance from the first to last point. I was mentally present. I was serving much better, using the court well.

“Cristian played for his first time on Centre Court. You could see he was nervous, making a lot of unforced errors at the beginning of the match, which gave me an opportunity to win first set comfortably.”

The Serb will take a 2-0 record against Marton Fucsovics Wednesday in the quarterfinals. The robotic Hungarian ended the run of Andrey Rublev 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 to reach his first Slam quarterfinal and snap a 3-match losing streak to the Russian.

“I was not thinking about the previous matches. This one was a different match,” said Fucsovics who won the Wimbledon juniors in 2010. “We played on grass. I really like the surface. I think my game fits the surface very well. I think Andrey’s game is not the best on grass, so I just was focusing on the next points. I took my chances. I didn’t give up. Then that was the key.”

In a crazy finish, Karen Khachanov withstood six breaks of serve in the fifth set to put away the last American man, Sebastian Korda, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 10-8.

In the fifth, the two combined for a Wimbledon men’s record 13 breaks of serve in a single set with the Russian failing three times to serve it out.

For Korda, the loss came on the day he was celebrating his 21st birthday.

Khachanov will have a day of rest before coming back to take on an in-form Denis Shapovalov who advanced to his first Wimbledon quarterfinal blowing out 2019 semifinalist Roberto Bautista Agut 6-1, 6-3, 7-5.

Shapovalov’s countryman Felix Auger-Aliassime joined him posting his best career win. The 20-year-old came back from a break down in the first four sets, the held off Alexander Zverev in the decider to win it 6-4, 7-6(6), 3-6, 3-6, 6-4.

“It’s a dream come true, I’m just a normal guy from Canada,” said Auger-Aliassime. “It’s the biggest victory of my life, under a closed roof the atmosphere was amazing and I’m living this win with you.

The victory was Auger-Aliassime’s first over Zverev, first in five sets and earned him a spot in his first Slam quarterfinal.

“It was super difficult, knowing I have never beaten him, let alone won a set against Alex,” he added. “When he started to come back I really needed to dig deep and without the fans it would have been a lot tougher.”

The youngster will have to take on the hot-handed Matteo Berrettini who cruised past Ilya Ivashka 6-4, 6-3, 6-1.

Eight-time champion Federer shook off a scratchy opening set before easing past Lorenzo Sonego 7-5, 6-4, 6-2. Federer failed to serve out the first at 5-4, but once the roof closed with the Italian serving 5-all, Ad-out, Federer got a double fault to give him the break and then took it from there to reach his 58th Slam quarterfinal.

“I’m extremely happy. Tricky conditions inside and outside against Lorenzo, always dangerous,” said Federer. “But I felt like after that first set, I was able to control things. It was a great match. I couldn’t be more excited to be in the quarters. It’s a big moment and I’m very, very happy.”

He await the winner Wednesday between Daniil Medvedev and Hubert Hurkacz. Medvedev was serving 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 3-4 when the rains came.

“You’re not happy about it. It’s not fair, but that’s how it goes. I’ve been in those situations many times before,” said Federer of their suspension. “These guys are young, they can recover. It’s not a problem for them. Unfortunately they’re very, very good, too, so hopefully it rains again tomorrow. I’m kidding. I’m kidding.”