Novak Djokovic dismantles Rublev to move on to Wimbledon semis

Novak Djokovic extended his win streak on Wimbledon‘s center court and moved on to the Wimbledon semifinals by defeating Andrey Rublev on Tuesday. And yes, I used “dismantles” in the title even though it did take Djokovic four sets to defeat Rublev. After the first set, the match wasn’t overly close.

Djoko just continues to hit shows mortal human beings should not be able to make. He gets to balls that people shouldn’t reach and then hits those balls back to places that wouldn’t be better if a person walked over and placed the ball on the court.

To give Rublev his due, taking a set off of Djoko on center court is something one can tell their grandchildren about. The Serbian has lost few sets there recently and hasn’t lost a match on the court since Andy Murray defeated Djokovic in 2013. Yes, 2013.

Novak Djokovic moves into the Wimbledon semis after defeating Andrey Rublev

After losing the first set, however, the match was one-sided and Djoko didn’t have to have a dominant first-serve to get the win 4-6 6-1 6-4 6-3. He only had 5 aces. But Rublev only won 51 of his 76 first serves. Still a decent percentage but not a high enough percentage to beat arguably the greatest player to ever pick up a racket. Djokovic also broke Rublev five times.

Now Dojoko will get two days off before he faces Jannik Sinner in the semifinals. It will be the 46th semifinal for Djoko at a Grand Slam and Sinner’s first. Still, Sinner has a well-rounded game and is capable of defeating Djokovic if Djoko doesn’t play near his best. Sinner doesn’t have to win with his serve only, His forehand and backhand are both excellent.

For Sinner to win, he might have to shorten the match and win points quickly. Getting into a match that goes five sets or into many tie-breaks is not to Sinner’s advantage. But get your popcorn ready because Djokovic versus Sinner should be high-level tennis.