Top seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia will face Chilean Cristian Garin in the Round of 16 at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships. The match is scheduled to be played on Monday July 5th, 2021.
World number one Novak Djokovic is here at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships seeking his record equaling 20th Grand Slam title. The Serbian top seed has been in dominant form so far to start the tournament, and is the big favorite to life the trophy here at the All England Club. Next up in his path is the young Chilean Cristian Garin, the seventeenth seed. Can he stop Djokovic and cause the upset?
Novak Djokovic is one of the best players that the sport has ever seen, and has a whopping five titles here at Wimbledon. If he wins a sixth then he will equal the record held by Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, so he is locked in and focused towards that goal. He has been dominant so far to start the Championships, and other than dropping a set against Jack Draper in the First Round he has hardly put a food wrong. He has defeated Draper, Kevin Anderson and then Denis Kudla in straight sets to reach this matchup against Cristian Garin. While his opponent is not comfortable on this surface, he is a big hitter than can be dangerous if he is hitting the ball well. Djokovic has been serving very well here and adding that to his already elite return game makes him very difficult to beat.
Cristian Garin is ranked #20 on the ATP Tour and is the number seventeen seed here at Wimbledon. The young Chilean has proven that he is one of the world’s best clay court players over the past few years, but tends to struggle on the quicker surfaces when he has less time to wind up behind the ball. He has struggled for the most part here at Wimbledon, but has still been finding a way to win. He looked a bit more comfortable in his Third Round win over Pedro Martinez, but he has dropped at least a set in each of his first three matches, a worrying trend that suggests that he will struggle against Djokovic.
This would be a great match on a clay court and possibly even hard, but on grass this will be a no contest. Cristian Garin struggles when he is rushed, and Djokovic is a master of taking the ball early and removing time from the opponent. Despite the Chilean’s high ranking, I expect this to be a very comfortable straight sets win for Novak Djokovic who will advance to the Quarter-Finals with ease.