Djokovic Celebrates Milestone Win, Moves Into Queen’s Club SFs

Novak Djokovic became the 10th player in the Open Era (since 1968) to record 800 match wins on Friday, also earning a place in the semi-finals of the Fever-Tree Championships.

The Serbian wild card and 2008 runner-up worked his way back from an early setback and grew in confidence with his level of play to defeat Adrian Mannarino France 7-5, 6-1 in 79 minutes. It was his third straight grass-court win over Mannarino (also 2016-17 Wimbledon).

Djokovic could next meet another Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy, last week’s in-form Libema Open finalist (l. to Gasquet), or #NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe on Saturday. Djokovic leads Chardy 10-0 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, while he has not played Tiafoe.

A backhand slice that lost Djokovic the third game was the very shot he got back on level terms with at 4-4, when he converted his sixth break point chance. Djokovic completed a run of four consecutive games from 2-4 down when Mannarino hit a forehand long to finish the 48-minute first set.

Djokovic stepped up in the fourth game of the second set when he dragged Mannarino, last year’s Turkish Airlines Open Antalya finalist (l. to Sugita), around the court to force a forehand groundstroke error. Djokovic, currently at No. 22 in the ATP Rankings, won 18 of his 24 service points in the second and is now 17-8 on the year.

Djokovic, competing at The Queen’s Club for the first time since 2010, finished as runner-up to Rafael Nadal in the 2008 final. In recent weeks, the 31-year-old has advanced to the semi-finals at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia (l. to Nadal) and the Roland Garros quarter-finals (l. to Cecchinato).

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