Novak Djokovic is into the semi-finals of Wimbledon after a marathon win over Felix Auger-Aliassime. He is now the oldest man to ever feature in a singles match at SW19 and did so with a five-set, five-hour, classic of the grass court. But the win did not come without controversy either as the 39-year-old ruffled quite a few feathers.
He will next face Jannik Sinner, who has not dropped a single set since his first-round match. The world No. 1, however, did not face a single seeded player in those four matches. They each have two days of rest before taking to court on Friday, leaving us with plenty to talk about in the meantime. Here, Express Sport runs over the latest news concerning the seven-time Wimbledon champion.
At 7.40pm, the umpire announced to both players that while the match was still even, they would be shutting the roof because of a lack of light.
Djokovic fumed at tournament referee Denise Parnell because he thought that another set could be played in daylight.
He launched into a furious on-court rant and said “you’re so proud of your rules, and you’re not sticking to any kind of rule, we have no idea what the rule is”. His pleas fell on deaf ears, however.
When asked about the situation in his press conference, he explained: “I feel like I played more of an indoor tournament than outdoor, to be honest.”
He has been one of 17 players punished by the All England Club in total since the tournament began.
There was no official explanation for the fine, but Djokovic did shout “bull****” and a series of expletives in Serbian during his fourth-round victory over Roman Safiullin.
Rising star Joao Fonseca was docked the same amount of racket abuse, while Hubert Hurkacz will be fined £5,600 for an audible obscenity. British star Julian Cash was also hit with the same punishment.
Djokovic is set to earn a minimum of £900,000 after reaching the final four, but will have a percentage of that figure taken away also.