The defending champion Novak Djokovic has rallied from a two set deficit against the South African Kevin Anderson to fight another day and will resume his battle for the final remaining spot in the quarter-finals as he finds himself locked at two sets apiece after three hours and three minutes on court no. 1. The 14th seeded Anderson who lost in the Queen’s final to Andy Murray has served 32 aces in the match so far and took the first two sets in tie-breaks with an identical 8-6 scoreline.

The 2011 and 2014 champion then took the next two sets 6-1,6-4 when play was suspended for the day. The top seed had coasted in straight sets in all three matches in the first week and can ill afford a slow start against the tall South African when the match resumes on Day 8 as Anderson has the advantage of serving first in the fifth set.

There were no such problems for the Swiss duo of seven time champion Roger Federer and the French Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka who breezed through in straight sets against the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut and David Goffin of Belgium respectively. Federer won 6-2,6-2,6-3 while Wawrinka took the first two sets in a tie-break eventually winning 7-6(3),7-6(7),6-4.

The upset of the day came when 2010 finalist Tomas Berdych was beaten in straight sets by the Frenchman Giles Simon who fellow countryman Richard Gasquet produced vintage tennis to end the run of the 20 year old Australian Nick Kyrgios in four sets.

The 2013 champion Andy Murray was made to sweat by the 36 year old Ivo Karlovic as he came through 7-6(7),6-4,5-7,6-4 in 3 hour and 2 minutes much to the delight of the partisan center court British fans. As expected the reigning U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic of Croatia defeated the last remaining American in the men’s draw Dennis Kudla in four sets while Canada’s Vasek Pospisil advanced to his first grand slam quarter-final with a come from behind win against the in-form Victor Troicki of Serbia. The unseeded Pospisil trailed by two sets before winning 4-6,6-7(4),6-4,6-3,6-3.

The quarter-final line-up to be played on Wednesday in the men’s section is as under :-

Novak Djokovic (1) or Kevin Anderson (14) v. Marin Cilic (9)
Stanislas Wawrinka (4) v. Richard Gasquet (21)
Andy Murray (3) v. Vasek Pospisil
Roger Federer(2) v. Giles Simon (12)

In the women’s section there was a straight set 6-4,6-3 win for Serena Williams over her sibling Venus Williams, while the 2004 champion Maria Sharapova of Russia too advanced with an easy 6-4,6-4 win over Zarina Diyas. The upsets though continued as the former world number one Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark lost to the Spaniard Garbine Muruguza and the French Open finalist Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic lost in three tie-breaks to the American Coco Vandeweghe.

However the other remaining former world number ones had mixed fortunes as Victoria Azarenka of Belarus routed the Swiss Belinda Bencic 6-2,6-3 while Jelena Jankovic, the conqueror of the defending champion Petra Kvitova, lost to Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska 5-7,4-6.

The other Swiss Timea Bacsinszky continued her good form with a strong come from behind win against Monica Niculescu of Romania as she won 1-6,7-5,6-2. The line up is completed by the exciting young American Madison Keys who too rallied from the loss of the first set to beat Olga Govortsova of Belarus 3-6,6-4,6-1.

Following is the line-up of matches to be played on Day 8 in the women’s section with my pick mentioned first :-

Serena Williams (1) v. Victoria Azarenka (23)
Maria Sharapova (4) v. Coco Vandeweghe
Timea Bacsinszky (15) v. Garbine Muruguza (20)
Madison Keys (21) v. Agnieszka Radwanska (13)

– Rasesh Mehta [Rasesh Mehta is an analyst with the Tennis Galaxy.You can reach him at the email: sportzcosmos@gmail.com]