Deadly Djokovic Halts Haas

There’s seems to be a hunger about Novak Djokovic at this year’s Wimbledon, a hunger to prove that he is the rightful world number one ahead of  nearest challenger Andy Murray and the tournaments early casualties Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Djokovic's toughest test so far, but he's still through in straight sets  

His fourth round match with 35 year old veteran Tommy Haas, a man who four years ago ended Djokovic’s hopes at SW19, proved to be to Serb’s biggest challenge yet. But if this wasn't Djokovic at his best then the rest of the draw should be more than a little concerned at his almost immaculate progress.

After a first set of little resistance from Haas, the German took a shock 4-2 lead in the second breaking Djokovic’s serve for the first time in the tournament. However the 13^th seed slowly faded and although he again broke the Serb when serving for the match at 5-4 it only prevented the inevitable as he went down 6-1 6-4 7-6 (7-4)

“It was never going to be as easy as the first set and I had to work for my games, I was serving well and returning exceptionally good at the vital times. Said Djokovic "I am really glad I managed to close it out in three sets"

However it wasn’t all about the top seed on day 7 of the Championships. This was also the day when Andy Murray, despite a brief scare, saw off 20^th seed Mikhail Youzhny 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 to reach the last 8 without dropping a set, where he will take on the left handed Spaniard Fernando Verdasco .

It also saw David Ferrer and Juan Martin Del Potro produce their best performances of the tournament so far; the pair will now meet to battle for a potential semi final showdown with Djokovic .

Djokovic himself will now face Tomas Berdych who let’s not forget was a Wimbledon finalist back in 2010, and the Czech had be in good form to see off young Australian Bernard Tomic 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-4.

However the big story of the day came in the Women’s draw where defending Champion and clear favourite Serena Williams suffered a staggering defeat  to 23^rd seed German Sabine Lisicki, to bring to an end a 34 match winning streak for the American, as she followed Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka whose departures have swung the draw wide open.

Unfortunately for the British fans Laura Robson wasn’t able add her name to the quarter final line up, as the 19 year olds unprecedented journey was brought to a hard fought end by Estonian Kaia Kanepi who prevailed 7-6 (8-6) 7-5 to set up a quarter final with Lisicki.

After all the upsets 4^th seed and last year’s runner up Agnieszka Radwanska is the highest ranked Woman left in the draw, however the 24 year old Pole is yet to win a Grand Slam and faces Na LI in the pick of the Women’s draw.