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On July 9, Sunday, the world number two Novak Djokovic was looking all set to reach the quarter-finals stage of Wimbledon 2023, but his match against Hubert Hurkacz, the 17th seed player, was moved to the next day. The referee of the tournament, Gerry Armstrong suspended play on Center Court at the end of the second set at 10:35 PM local time.
The reason for the abrupt end to the contest between Djokovic and Hurkacz was because the local rules don’t allow the Wimbledon matches to continue at SW19, after the 11 PM curfew. Hence, if a contest approaches this time limit, then play gets halted after the completion of a set.
Notably, due to the preceding match on the Center Court lasting about three hours, the Wimbledon men’s singles fourth round tie didn’t begin until 8:50 PM. During the pulsating first two sets, Hubert Hurkacz was leading Novak Djokovic in the tie-breakers, but the experienced Serbian managed to withstand the pressure from his Polish counterpart.
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When the match was suspended till Monday by the chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani with an announcement to the crowd, Djokovic had a two-set lead over Hurkacz. He had saved three set points in the first tie-breaker, while keeping his opponent at bay in the second set, to register the scoreline of 7-6, 7-6.
Novak Djokovic looks to become the third player to win Wimbledon five times in a row
The Serbian tennis superstar Novak Djokovic has won the Wimbledon men’s singles title four times in a row. With that, he is one step away from becoming the third player after Roger Federer and Bjorn Borg to achieve victory at The Championships five times in a row in the open era.
