Published on 12:37 AM, July 03, 2016

The Championsdhip Wimbledon

Spectacular Novak fall

American Sam Querrey ended Novak Djokovic's remarkable Grand Slam winning run, downing the defending champion 7-6, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 during their third round Wimbledon match yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

Two-time defending champion Novak Djokovic was sent crashing out of Wimbledon by big-serving Sam Querrey on Saturday, shattering his dreams of securing the first calendar Grand Slam in 47 years.

The world number one, bidding for a fourth Wimbledon title and 13th major, suffered his earliest loss at a Slam since the 2009 French Open.

The 7-6 (8/6), 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7/5) third round defeat also ended Djokovic's Open era record run of 30 successive wins at the majors and his streak of having reached 28 consecutive Grand Slam quarter-finals.

"Sam played a great match. His game was brutal and I was overpowered today," said the Serb, who added that he "wasn't 100 percent healthy".

"But this is not the place or time to talk about it."

Djokovic added that he would not be playing in the Davis Cup quarter-final against Andy Murray's Great Britain in Belgrade in two weeks' time.

Djokovic's defeat was good news for second seed Andy Murray who lost to his long-time rival in the Australian and French Open finals this year.

The 2013 champion responded by making the last-16 with a 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 victory over Australia's John Millman under the Centre Court roof.

"What Novak's done in the last 18 months, I don't think we'll see again for a long time. The level of consistency he's had is amazing, but it's impossible to win every match," said Murray.

Murray will play Australian 15th seed Nick Kyrgios or Spain's Feliciano Lopez for a place in the quarter-finals.

Japanese fifth seed Kei Nishikori beat Andrey Kuznetsov 7-5, 6-3, 7-5 to set up a last-16 clash with Marin Cilic, the Croatian ninth seed who eased past Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.

That will be a repeat of the 2014 US Open final won by Cilic.

Three more hours were lost to rain on Saturday, justifying further the tournament's decision to stage play on the middle Sunday for the first time since 2004.

Due to the rain-hit first week, two-time champion Petra Kvitova only finished her second round match at 5:30pm (1630 GMT) while others were already safely into the last 16.

But the Czech 10th seed, with 43 unforced errors, lost 7-5, 7-6 (7/5) to Russia's Ekaterina Makarova.