Novak Djokovic made a dream come true by maintaining his nine-year unbeaten record on Centre Court.
The six times champion took less than two hours to breeze into the fourth round - beating compatriot Miomir Kecmanovic 6-0 6-3 6-4. It earned him a last-16 date with Dutch wonder kid Tim van Rijthoven who revealed that drawing the Serb was the stuff of his fantasies.
“Before the tournament started basically it was my dream,” said the 25-year old, who has gone from zero to hero in the space of a month. "To have that chance is beautiful and magical." Three weeks ago van Rijthoven was an unknown, ranked outside the top 200 without even a Challenger title to his name.
Tomorrow he faces the king of SW19 having beaten 22nd seed Nikoloz Basilashvili to extend a sensational run of form which brought him the Libema Open title in only his second main draw appearance.
“From the outside it obviously looks like a fairy tale,” he agreed. His reward was a Wimbledon wild card and that wish to complete the fairy tale with a match against Djokovic.
“I go into every match thinking I can win,” he said. “Even against Djokovic I’ll go in thinking I can.” That is wishful thinking against an opponent unbeaten on grass anywhere in 24 matches since 2018.
Djokovic is on a mission to make up for lost time given this is the only Grand Slam left for him this year as he is unable to enter the US without a Covid jab.
A man with designs to be the greatest of all time has seen his ambition derailed by his vaccine refusal. At 35, time is running out in his quest to overhaul Rafa Nadal.
He showed his urgency, in front of another less than capacity crowd, winning the first set to love in 24 minutes, The younger Serb found his feet, making him work to close out the contest, but the result was never in doubt.
