Novak Djokovic and Hubert Hurkacz won't finish their fourth-round match at the 2023 Wimbledon on Sunday due to a curfew.
After a very long five-set match between Andrey Rublev and Alexander Bublik that ended in a spectacular style, and a three-set battle between Iga Swiatek and Belinda Bencic, it was almost sure that the two protagonists of the last match on the Centre Court on Sunday won't finish it on time.
It was a sixth meeting on the ATP Tour between the two, and while the 23-time Grand Slam champion succeeded every time before, Hurkacz surely wanted to avenge the previous Wimbledon loss which came in 2019.
The first set was a typical grass-court set with no break points, and it had to be decided in a tie-break. It looked good for the Polish player who led 6-3, but he lost his lead due to multiple mistakes and Djokovic won the first-set tie-break 8-6.
In the second set, there were a total of five break points, and all for the Serb as Hurkacz had to show his A-game to save them all. Eventually, the second set reached a tie-break too, and the underdog had his chances once again.
Hurkacz was leading 5-4 with two balls in his hand and with 23 aces hit in the first two sets, he was a big favourite to serve it out. But once again, Djokovic showed why he's the seven-time Wimbledon champion, winning the second-set tie-break 8-6.
And right after the second set ended, the match had to be suspended due to Wimbledon curfew, which was put in place in 2009 to 'balance the consideration of the local residents with the scale of an international tennis event that takes place in a residential area.'
At this year's Wimbledon, fans could observe it in the match of the home crowd hero Andy Murray who was leading 2-1 against Stefanos Tsitsipas when the match was suspended due to the curfew.
Positive news for Hurkacz is that once they returned to the court the next day, Tsitsipas was able to turn the match around, something the Pole will be also hoping to do on Monday, despite facing much bigger deficit.
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