Stat of the Day: Novak Djokovic hasn't lost a match on Centre Court in a decade

Novak Djokovic continued his quest for an eighth Wimbledon title—and 24th Grand Slam title—on Friday night, defeating Stan Wawrinka, 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (5), to move through to the fourth round.

With his victory over the three-time major winner, Djokovic not only reaches the second week of Wimbledon for the 15th time in his career, but it’s also his 30th win of the year—the 18th consecutive year that he’s recorded 30 or more tour-level victories, a stretch that dates back to 2006.

But there’s an even more historic thing Djokovic accomplished with his win over Wawrinka: he hasn't lost a match on Centre Court for an entire decade now.

Djokovic’s last loss on Centre Court came to Andy Murray on July 7, 2013, which was the final that year. Since then he’s won 42 matches in a row on the world’s most famous tennis court, his victory over Wawrinka coming today, on July 7, 2023.

It’s the longest winning streak for any player, male or female, since Centre Court opened in 1922.

Wawrinka has played some of his best tennis against Djokovic on the biggest stages—he had won four of their last five meetings at Grand Slams, including both of the major finals they had contested, at Roland Garros in 2015 and the US Open in 2016.

But Djokovic is one of the greatest grass-court players of all time and was in top form on Friday night, storming through the first two sets—not even letting a single winner past him in the second set—and, after Wawrinka stayed on serve with him through the tie-break in the third set and even built a 5-3 lead in that breaker, reeling off the last four points in a row to seal the deal in straight sets.

Djokovic finished the match with 38 winners to 26 unforced errors, including 11 aces to just one double fault, and he never even faced a single break point in 14 service games.

Awaiting the 23-time Grand Slam champion in the fourth round will be the No. 17 seed, Hubert Hurkacz, who pulled off a minor upset over No. 14 seed Lorenzo Musetti earlier in the day, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-4.