Djokovic cruises into quarterfinals at Wimbledon

London: Novak Djokovic of Serbia brushed past Denmark’s Holger Rune 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, reaching his 15th Wimbledon quarterfinals here on Monday.

Djokovic, a 24-time Grand Slam champion, gave Rune a huge blow by taking 12 points in a row to lead 3-0 in the opening set. Rune struggled to compete with the seven-time Wimbledon champion. The 21-year-old Rune could hardly raise his game to compete with the seven-time Wimbledon champion and failed to reach the quarterfinals at the All England Club as he did last year.

“I don’t think Holger played close to his best. Tough start for him. That got to him mentally,” said the 37-year-old Djokovic, who will face the ninth seed Alex de Minaur on Wednesday as the Australian knocked out French hopeful Arthur Fils 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

American ace Taylor Fritz came from two sets down to beat Alexander Zverev 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 6-3, but the German fourth seed said he was proud of himself as he fought to the end with one leg.

“I think it was fairly obvious that I wasn’t 100 percent today,” said Zverev who injured his knee in the last match. “I wasn’t moving really in the entire match. I wasn’t running for dropshots. If I was running for a dropshot, I was limping there more than running.”

In the women’s singles, last year’s semifinalist Elina Svitolina was too good for China’s Wang Xinyu, as the Ukraine’s No. 21 seed beat Wang 6-2, 6-1 within one hour.

Wang, 22, admitted that she was under great pressure at the beginning of every point as Svitolina was so aggressive and determined.

“My serves were not good, and I didn’t play my best in the whole match,” said Wang who reached the last 16 at Wimbledon for the first time. “She put me in huge pressure and gave me no time to adjust.”

Svitolina, 29, will meet 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the quarterfinals.