27th June, 2014
Top seed Novak Djokovic survived a shoulder injury scare to reach the Wimbledon fourth round on Friday with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 win over France’s Gilles Simon, his seventh successive victory over the Frenchman.
Djokovic, the 2011 champion, needed a medical timeout to receive treatment and take a painkiller after hurting his left shoulder in a spectacular diving attempt to reach a Simon drive in the sixth game of the third set.
But the Serb overcame the scare to set up a clash with French 14th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for a place in the quarter-finals.
Chinese second seed and Australian Open champion Li Na was knocked out of Wimbledon on Friday, losing 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/5) in the third round to Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic.
The defeat followed a first round exit for Li at the French Open last month as Wimbledon again proved her undoing.
In eight appearances at the All England Club, the 32-year-old has still never got beyond the third round.
The match ended in bizarre circumstances with Li, facing match point, successfully challenging a forehand which had been called long.
But the 28-year-old Zahlavova Strycova, the world number 43, was able to quickly celebrate victory for real when Li served up a seventh double fault on the replayed point.