25 and counting – Djokovic tops Van Rijthoven and sets quarter-final clash with Sinner

Novak Djokovic pushed past Dutch wild card Tim Van Rijthoven, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 on Sunday evening in Centre Court, the top-seeded Serb notching his 25th consecutive Wimbledon win and booking a quarter-final with Italy’s Jannik Sinner, the No 10 seed. 

Van Rijthoven’s remarkable grass season comes to an end. The 25-year-old won his first ATP match last month at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, and went all the way to the title, where he defeated world No.1 Daniil Medvedev in the final. 

At Wimbledon the Dutchman stretched his winning streak to eight matches (wins over Delbonis, Opelka and Basilashvili), but he ran into a brick wall on Sunday as the Serb pushed him in every stage of the game. 

Djokovic engineered six breaks of serve and won 12 of the final 15 games after he dropped the second set. 

With his victory, three-time defending champion Djokovic moves into sole possession of the third-longest winning streak on grass, passing Rod Laver (24), and he tied Pete Sampras for the fourth-longest winning streak at Wimbledon – Djokovic has not lost at Wimbledon since 2017.

Only Bjorn Borg (41), Roger Federer (40) and Pete Sampras (31) have won more Wimbledon matches in succession. 

Wimbledon (Grand Slam), other last 16 results (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, grass, GBP 40.350.000, most recent results first):

• Botic van de Zandschulp vs. Rafael Nadal
• Jason Murray Kubler vs. Taylor Fritz
• Brandon Nakashima vs. Nick Kyrgios
• Cristian Garin vs. Alex De Minaur
• Jannik Sinner beat Carlos Alcaraz (5): 6-1, 6-4, 6-7 (8), 6-3
• Cameron Norrie (9) beat Tommy Paul (30): 6-4, 7-5, 6-4
• David Goffin beat Frances Tiafoe (23): 7-6 (3), 5-7, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5

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