But the scare precedent was set when the Serbian top seed trailed South African Kevin Anderson two sets to love in the fourth round past year before going on to win his third Wimbledon title, and start a run of consecutive grand slam match wins that now stands at 30, an Open era record. It was also the world number one’s earliest loss at a Slam since 2009, ending his hopes of becoming the first man to claim a calendar Grand Slam since Rod Laver in 1969. I managed to win four grand slams in a row – two different seasons, though. Last year, he was two sets to love down to Kevin Anderson in the fourth round before staging a thrilling comeback. He made at least the semifinals at Wimbledon every year since 2010.
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The match was one disrupted by rain, with play called off on Friday with Querrey two sets up.
Djokovic had admitted that he hadn’t been “100 percent healthy” in the match with Querrey and was spotted rubbing his left shoulder as the tie slipped away. If he has one thing going for him (you know, other than the ridiculous serve and elation over his progress thus far), it’s that Raonic struggled through a three-hour, five-set match against David Goffin, the 11th seed, in the Round of 16.
“Coming into this match, I knew that it was going to be very close, and not easy to break his serve”, Djokovic said, with Querrey hitting 31 aces in total, including 15 in the fourth set. But serving to even the match at two sets apiece, Djokovic faltered.
Given his complete and utter dominance, Djokovic looked a good chance of such a success. But Querrey hung in there, and a stray forehand by the big favorite sailed wide to end it.
“He came out and got the first four games, fortunately for me we had another rain delay and I got to regroup”. Since then, Djokovic won his third trophy at Wimbledon last July, his second at the US Open in September, his sixth at the Australian Open in January, and his first at the French Open less than a month ago. Three days earlier, he needed just four sets to knock off Djokovic, the world’s top-ranked player who was going for the “Golden Slam” this year – the titles of all four major tournaments plus an Olympic gold medal. Plus, Djokovic won eight of nine previous head-to-head meetings.
Querrey is now ranked No. 41 in the world.
“I don’t think it (expectancy) played a big factor”, he said.
But quickly approaching a half-century of matches at the halfway point of the year, and with rain bringing additional problems, Djokovic was flat.
There were plenty of results Saturday as the rainy tournament cleared a backlog of matches and finally closed the second round.
“Probably not the best he’s ever played”, said Querrey, who plays France’s Nicolas Mahut next, “but not the worst he’s ever played”.
Nothing resonated, of course, like Djokovic’s defeat. Roger Federer, striving at 34 to be the oldest man to win a Grand Slam title, had dropped words of dark foreboding when he hinted that Djokovic was not unbeatable. Budge’s message to Laver was: “Welcome to an exclusive club”. In fact, no American man has won any Grand Slam title since Andy Roddick’s 2003 U.S. Open victory.
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“I’m really excited. It’s an unbelievable win”, Querrey said in a postmatch interview before heading off to play doubles.
