Novak Djokovic was jeered by a section of the Centre Court crowd after reaching yet another Wimbledon final.
The six-times champion will face Nick Kyrgios on Sunday but some spectators booed when he clinched a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Cameron Norrie. After the clinching point, Djokovic turned to seemingly make a point and to glare at fans who had disrupted his service game by calling out when he was getting ready to serve.
And that was met by jeering from some amongst the crowd. It was a slightly sour end to a magnificent performance by Djokovic, who is going for a fourth consecutive Wimbledon title.
After starting so well, it was a disappointment for Norrie, who struggled to find his A-game in front of the likes of Wayne Rooney and Sir Alex Ferguson. But there is no shame in losing to Djokovic, who has not been beaten at Wimbledon since losing in the quarter-finals in 2017.
Djokovic will now be bidding for a 21st Grand Slam of his career, which would move him to within one of Rafael Nadal’s record tally. Considering he probably knows Centre Court as well as he knows his living room, Djokovic looked surprisingly edgy in the first set, surrendering his serve on no fewer than three occasions.
In contrast, Norrie had an air of assurance about him and even managed to hit his fastest serve of the tournament - 127mph - on his way to taking the opener 6-2. But that air of assurance evaporated midway through the second set as a flurry of unforced errors and wrong choices from Norrie gave Djokovic a foothold in the match.
And, of course, the six-times champion does not need any second invitations to put his stamp on proceedings. In fact, from 3-3 in the second set, Djokovic won nine of the next 12 games to establish a two sets to one lead.
The Djokovic dominance sucked the energy out of the partisan spectators although they did break into song early in the fourth set in an attempt to try and lift their man. Alas, while they broke into song, Djokovic broke serve and there was only one direction in which the match was heading.
Although Norrie was not on his best form - and had a couple of bad line calls go against him - it was an impressive performance from Djokovic, who is now a hot favourite to beat Kyrgios in the final. It will be his last shot at a Slam this season if the United States’ Covid rules continue to mean he cannot enter the country for next month’s US Open.
