Novak Djokovic eased into his 50th grand slam quarter-final with a straight-sets victory over Cristian Garin on Centre Court at Wimbledon.
The world number one made it 18 consecutive slam wins as he chases a third title of the year and 12 consecutive sets taken at the All England Club this year with a 6-2 6-4 6-2 success.
Had he been able to pick an opponent for a last-16 clash at Wimbledon, he could have done a lot worse than Chilean Garin who, despite being seeded 17th, is a clay-court specialist and had never won a match at SW19 prior to this year.
#Wimbledon quarter-finalist for a 12th time... Defending champion @DjokerNole defeats Cristian Garin 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 to reach the final eight pic.twitter.com/skJOrqvjx3 — Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 5, 2021
He had benefited from a kind draw to make it this far and he got a taste of the afternoon he was in for as Djokovic won the first eight points of the match and raced through the opening set.
Garin dug in well at the start of the second, holding his own in rallies a lot better and forcing Djokovic into a few uncomfortable moments.
Play was stopped in the fifth game as rain began to fall but it was so brief the players had barely sat down before they were back out on court.
Djokovic began to ramp up the pressure and, after failing to take five break points through the first seven games of the set, he found a way through to make it 5-4 and did not look back.
