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The last match on Centre Court on the seed-packed 2nd monday at Wimbledon featured an all-Serbian clash between the unseeded Victor Troicki and his popular compatriot, the world no.1 and defending champion, Novak Djokovic. Djokovic breezed past his unheralded opponent in straight sets, winning 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 to book his spot in the quarter-finals. The world no.1 stamped his authority early on in the match, out maneuvering his fellow Serbian time and again using his powerful and consistent groundstrokes and his amazing court coverage. This domineering win also sends an ominous and foreboding message to the other players left in the draw that he is the "man to beat" and it is going to take something special to knock the champion off his quest of defending his Wimbledon crown.

Djokovic came out of the blocks firing, holding serve with consummate ease and breaking his compatriot's serve in just the 4th game of the first set. However, Troicki reciprocated the favor in the very next game thanks to some fearless and aggressive play of his own. There is a reason why Djokovic is considered the best returner in the game today and it manifested in the very next game, as a third consecutive break followed rather effortlessly as Djokovic kept his nose in front. This time, though, he did not relinquish the lead, holding serve throughout the remainder of the set to bag it in just under an hour.

The Second set proved to be one-way traffic with Djokovic steamrolling his countryman, breaking serve at will and in the process showcasing his aggressive baseline play and superior court agility and coverage. Errors flowing from Troicki's racket did not help matters either as Djokovic broke his fellow Serbian's serve a total of 3 times with utmost ease to take the 2nd set in only 24 minutes.

Troicki, finally, managed to put a halt on the "breaking spree" , holding his serve for the first time in 4 attempts. Nevertheless, with Djokovic in this kind of ominous form on his returns, it was just a matter of time before he broke his compatriot's serve in the 6th game of the set with Troicki, ultimately, succumbing to the persistent pressure applied by his illustrious opponent. Even though the world no.1 got into a spot of bother in his very next service game, going down a couple of break points, he managed to see them off and eventually went on to hold serve for the remainder of the set to emerge victorious in exactly an hour and 30 minutes.

This commanding win puts Djokovic in his 13th consecutive quarter-final appearance at Grand Slams, still 20 shy of the incredible record set by Roger Federer earlier in the day. His next opponent is scheduled to be the winner of the match between the 18th seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet and the 31st seeded German Florian Mayer. Rain brought an early end to their contest on the outside courts with Mayer up a set.

Singles - Fourth Round
[1] N Djokovic (SRB) d V Troicki (SRB) 63 61 63
[3] R Federer (SUI) d X Malisse (BEL) 76(1) 61 46 63
[4] A Murray (GBR) vs [16] M Cilic (CRO) 75 31 - suspended due to rain
[10] M Fish (USA) vs [5] J Tsonga (FRA) 64 11 - suspended due to rain
[31] F Mayer (GER) vs [18] R Gasquet (FRA) 63 21 - suspended due to rain
[26] M Youzhny (RUS) d D Istomin (UZB) 63 57 64 67(5) 75

File Photograph Copyright: Simon Tregidgo