Murray sympathises with defeated Djokovic

Andy Murray sympathised with his close friend and rival Novak Djokovic after the Serbian suffered a shock defeat at the hands of world number 41, Sam Querrey.

While Murray cruised into the fourth round with a regulation straight-sets victory over John Millman, top seed Djokovic suffered his first grand slam defeat in 31 matches as he went down 6-7 (6-8), 1-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5-7) to the 28-year-old American who served 31 aces en route to victory.

Murray, however, refused to dwell on the implications of one of his main title rivals being eliminated from the tournament.

“If I was to reach the final, then it may have some bearing really, but it doesn’t right now,” he said.

“My draw’s still exactly the same. The matches, in the next round especially, are tough.

“You know, your job is to go out there and try to win the matches that are there in front of you.

“That’s what I’ll try and do.”

The 29-year-old had not had a chance to watch much of Djokovic’s defeat, but insisted that the world number one’s recent achievements deserved more attention than his surprise exit from the tournament.

“Rather than it being sort of a surprise,” he said. “It should really be sort of almost celebrated now, what he’s actually done.

“I mean, it’s incredible.

“He broke a number of records, winning all four slams, what was it, 30 consecutive grand slam matches.

“It’s amazing.

“Obviously I would imagine today he’d be disappointed and stuff. But, you know, looking back, it’s been probably the best 12 months in tennis for years.

“I literally saw like five or six points of the match, so I don’t obviously exactly know what happened out there.

“But when Sam’s serving well, you know, he’s very difficult to beat, especially on a grass court.”

In contrast to Djokovic, Murray suffered few scares as he saw off Australian Millman 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 to set up a fourth-round clash with either another Australian, Nick Kyrgios, or Spain’s Feliciano Lopez on Monday.

A rain interruption forced the Centre Court roof to be closed in order for play to continue, but failed to upset the rhythm of the number two seed has yet to drop a set or be taken to a tie-break in the tournament so far.

“I thought it was a good match, a lot of long rallies,” he told BBC Sport.

“John moves well and doesn’t make too many unforced errors.

“When you go indoors it slows the conditions down a bit, so it wasn’t easy to hit too many winners.

“I had to be patient and played some good stuff in the third set.

“I think I’m playing well.

“You know, some of the tennis I played at the end of the matches, in particular the last two matches, in the third sets of both of those matches, has been very good.

“Today I went through a tough sort of 15‑, 20‑minute period in that second set and came through it well.  There were a lot of long rallies and tough games.

“I played some good stuff in those tough moments.

“I mean, there hasn’t been too many, but today I dealt with it well.”