Novak Djokovic secured his first victory over Top 5 opposition in almost 18 months, defeating World No. 5 Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-1 at the Fever-Tree Championships on Thursday.

Djokovic notched his seventh win in eight FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings against the reigning Nitto ATP Finals titlist after 65 minutes, winning eight of the last nine games and 30 of 34 first-serve points.

The 31-year-old, who lifted the doubles title in 2010 (w/Erlich), improves to 8-3 at the Queen’s Club and has now reached the last eight in each of his three most recent tournament appearances. Djokovic advanced to the Internazionali BNL d’Italia semi-finals in May (l. to Nadal) and reached the last eight at Roland Garros (l. to Cecchinato).

“I’m still kind of finding my form,” Djokovic said. “This was a great test, playing against one of the top players in the world, a player that I guess prefers this surface the most. It was a great challenge that I was looking forward to. I was very focused; I was very determined to play my best, especially after my great performance in the first round (d. Millman).”

Both men made strong starts, holding their opening four service games with relative ease. But, from that point forward, Djokovic seized total control.

After holding to 15 for a 5-4 lead, the Serb capitalised on two double faults from Dimitrov, at the start and conclusion of the tenth game, to take a one-set lead.

“I guess I broke his resistance in that 10th game of the first set. He made a couple of crucial double faults that obviously allowed me to get ahead, but I thought I was just making him play in big moments and I served well when I needed to,” Djokovic said. “So it was a very good performance.”

Djokovic went from strength to strength in the second set, breaking serve to 30 in the fourth and sixth games before converting his fourth match point, as Dimitrov’s slice-backhand return floated beyond the baseline.

Djokovic will meet Adrian Mannarino, who won an all-French clash in the final match of the day, 7-6(4), 6-3 against qualifier Julien Benneteau, over one hour and 51 minutes. The Serbian has won both his FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings with Mannarino in straight sets.

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Did You Know?
Gigor Dimitrov has appeared at every edition of the Fever-Tree Championships since 2009. The Bulgarian won the title in 2014, defeating Spain’s Feliciano Lopez in a final-set tie-break.

Matthew Ebden, competing at a career-high No. 60 in the ATP Rankings, continued his impressive run of form on grass courts by beating local hope Philipp Kohlschreiber on Thursday at the Gerry Weber Open.

Ebden, fresh off his second ATP World Tour semi-final at the Libema Open (l. to Chardy), ran out a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 winner over 2011 champion Kohlschreiber, who has a 31-12 record in Halle.

The Australian will next challenge World No. 1 Roger Federer, on a 17-match grass-court winning streak dating back to his ninth Halle title last year, or Benoit Paire of France.

Watch: Join Ebden In An Off-Court Halle Training Session

Kohlschreiber was in complete control until a lapse in concentration early in the second set, which lasted just 23 minutes. Ebden won eight of nine games, before Kohlschreiber saved six break points in a 12-minute third game of the decider. Ebden earned his ninth win of the year by hitting 37 winners, including seven aces.

Kohlschreiber is 121-64 lifetime in Germany (.654) and 318-275 elsewhere (.536), with five of his eight ATP World Tour singles titles coming on home soil.

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Stan Wawrinka is mentally fresh and happy with his form on the practice court, but he continues to take small steps in his rehabilitation from two surgeries last year on his left knee.

At the Fever-Tree Championships on Wednesday, the Swiss star competed with the right intensity and despite the setback of being unable to convert seven set points in the 10th game of the first set, he once again took a great deal of positives from his loss to Sam Querrey.

“All I know is that I personally feel really good with the way I’m practising, the way I’m moving and the way I’m playing my game,” said Wawrinka. “Now all I need is to keep playing matches like today, like two days ago [against Cameron Norrie]. And also try to win little by little, get my confidence back, get used to play all those important points and feel the right way mentally on the court.

“It’s about knowing that when you play a match like that, if you play 10 matches like that, then you think less and you know exactly what you’re going to do at 5-5, you know what you’re going to do in the tie-break, and that’s how you start winning again.”

Wawrinka knows only too well that he needs to adhere to the advice of his doctors, but once he stepped onto The Queen’s Club grass, the 33-year-old was pleasantly surprised that his knee felt better after undertaking another fitness training block.

“There are a few things on the court that are not the same and maybe will never be the same,” said Wawrinka. “But I believe that I’m strong enough now to play my best tennis. Is it going to be enough? We don’t know.

“After my surgery, I started from zero. My first fitness practice was just walking. The most difficult part was to be happy with it, when you know what you can do. If you start from zero and you finish a 20-minute or 30-minute session, you have to tell yourself, ‘Wow, this is good, this is positive’. That’s when it start to be tough, because it last for months.”

Having watched Andy Murray return and perform well against Nick Kyrgios in his first match for 342 days on Tuesday, Wawrinka admitted, “I think when you come back from surgery, there is few levels of fitness when you come back, so you cannot do everything. For me, it was like step by step, and the last step is to be 100 per cent physically ready and consistent for five hours.

“I think I’m close to that.”

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Lleyton Hewitt and Nick Kyrgios caused a major upset on Wednesday at the Fever-Tree Championships when they knocked out two-time former champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 in 66 minutes for a place in the quarter-finals.

The Australian wild cards broke Herbert’s serve in the seventh game of the first set, but the French team regrouped to take a 4-1 advantage in the second set. Hewitt and Kyrgios took control of the Match tie-break by winning four of the first five points. They will next face Britons Kyle Edmund and Neal Skupski.

Two weeks ago, Herbert and Mahut captured the Roland Garros title – their 12th team trophy. Hewitt, 37, has played five tour-level doubles tournaments this year, including a run to the Australian Open quarter-finals with Sam Groth.

Lucky losers Marcus Daniell and Wesley Koolhof made the most of their opportunity by beating wild cards Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 7-6(2). They go onto face fourth seeds and defending champions Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares.

The victors will challenge top seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic, the leaders in the ATP Race To London for a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals in November.

Marach and Pavic, with four trophies to their name this year, fought hard to defeat Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-4, 6-7(6), 10-7. They could not convert two match points at 6/4 in the second set tie-break and came back from 3/6 down in the Match tie-break.

Kubot/Melo Move On In Halle
Defending champions Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo booked their place in the Gerry Weber Open quarter-finals, defeating qualifiers Jonathan Erlich and Nicholas Monroe 6-3, 6-4.

The top seeds advanced after 69 minutes, firing seven aces and saving three of four break points to progress. Kubot and Melo, who own an 18-12 record this season, will meet Max Mirnyi and Philipp Oswald for a semi-final spot. Mirnyi and Oswald edged past Marcin Matkowski and Matwe Middelkoop 7-5, 7-6(4) in 81 minutes.

Ivan Dodig and Rajeev Ram wasted no time in their opening match, cruising past Karen Khachanov and Lucas Pouille 6-3, 6-0 in 57 minutes. The fourth seeds won all four break points they earned to power past the Russian-French duo, who contested the Open 13 Provence singles final in February.

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