LONDON, July 1 (AFP): Top seed Novak Djokovic and defending champion Andy Murray closed in Monday on a mouth-watering Wimbledon semi-final duel after easing into the last eight at a wet and wild All England Club.
Djokovic reached the quarter-finals for the sixth successive year with a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) win over French 14th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
The 2011 champion will be playing in his 21st successive Grand Slam last- eight when he faces Croatia's Marin Cilic for a place in the semi-finals.
Djokovic leads Cilic 9-0 in career meetings while his win Monday was his 13th in 18 clashes against two-time Wimbledon semi-finalist Tsonga, and 11th in a row.
"In the third set he started to serve very well, very efficient, very strong. It was important to hang in there, get into the tie-break," said Djokovic, who fired 44 winners.
"I am feeling good, I had two days off, I could recover a little bit. In the first week I had a couple of tough matches."
On facing Cilic, the Serb added: "He knows how to play on grass and definitely he has nothing to lose so I look forward to a tough one."
Cilic reached the quarter-finals for the first time with a 7-6 (10/8), 6-4, 6-4 win over France's Jeremy Chardy.
Third-seeded Murray reached his seventh successive Wimbledon quarter- final with a 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) win over South Africa's Kevin Anderson, hitting 11 aces and 49 winners.
He next faces Bulgarian 11th seed Grigor Dimitrov who reached his first Wimbledon quarter-final with a 6-4, 7-6 (8/6), 6-2 win over Argentina's Leonardo Mayer.
Djokovic, Murray close in semi-final duel
FE Team | Published: July 02, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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