- Djokovic: pro-Rune chant was ‘an excuse’ to boo me
- No 2 seed races to 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win on Centre Court
As the 2022 tennis season began to wind down in the cold indoor stadiums across Europe, Novak Djokovic found himself in an unusual situation. In the final of the Paris Masters that November, the Serb played a solid match and his level would have been sufficient to defeat many adversaries, but for once his opponent was even better. That night, a fearless 19-year-old named Holger Rune toppled Djokovic to win his first Masters 1000 title.
Performing at the highest level week in, week out, though, is a much greater task than producing occasional, early flashes of brilliance. Two years on from that striking encounter, Rune has not made as much progress as he might have hoped and this time, the match-up was rather a mismatch. Under the roof on Monday evening, an excellent Djokovic thoroughly outplayed Rune and silenced an overzealous Centre Court crowd, returning to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon with a comfortable 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win.