England celebrations briefly interrupt Novak Djokovic’s progression at Wimbledon

With former England boss Roy Hodgson watching from the Royal Box, a huge cheer broke out around Centre Court as news of England’s win on penalties against Switzerland filtered through.

That prompted Djokovic to take an imaginary spot-kick, with Popyrin putting up his hands to mimic a save.

After a 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6 (3) victory, Djokovic said: “I assumed it was a penalty shoot-out between England and Switzerland. It felt like for a set and a half the crowd wanted to know the score. Did England win? Congrats!

“I took a penalty, I’m left-footed, but Alex saved it well.”

While England have laboured all the way to the semi-finals, Djokovic also looked underwhelming in the first set.

Popyrin broke the Serbian’s serve with a stunning forehand pass on the run, and then sealed the opening set with a booming ace.

But once the seven-time champion got into his stride Popyrin, who took Djokovic to four sets at his home slam in Australia in January, suffered the same fate.

“It was another tough match, I didn’t expect anything less,” said Djokovic, who mimed playing a violin as he celebrated.

“He was close to winning that match in Australia. He’s dangerous on any surface.

“A challenging match mentally as well, having to hang in there with no concentration lapses, and the tie-break was one of the best I’ve played this year.”

Djokovic, still wearing a protective knee support following surgery on a torn meniscus, added: “Each match is getting better, my confidence in my movement, reaching, sliding,

“I definitely felt better today than in my last match. Hopefully the trajectory continues in a positive way throughout the tournament.”

Fourth seed Alexander Zverev ended British hopes in the men’s draw with a straight-sets win over Cameron Norrie.

The German came through a marathon third-set tie-break, squandering five match points before taking a sixth to win it 17-15.

Zverev will undergo a scan after jarring his knee during the second set, but he does not feel the injury is too bad.

“I will see what the MRI says,” he said. “But I personally don’t think that it can be anything too serious because I still played. Of course, I was limited, I feel like, in some of the movements.

“If you’re breaking a ligament or breaking something else, the meniscus or something like that, I don’t think you can continue playing even the way I did, so we’ll see what it is. Hopefully I’ll be fine in two days’ time.”

Zverev will face American Taylor Fritz, a late-night winner over Alejandro Tabilo in straight sets.

Fifth seed Daniil Medvedev finished off Jan-Lennard Struff in four sets in a match carried over from Friday and then further delayed by more rain and Wang Xinyu’s win over Harriet Dart.

“We were very unlucky with the girls also playing in front of us,” he said.

“It was, like, 6-1, 3-1. We both go warm up. Then it was like the longest set ever. Then the third set was 3-1. We start to re-warm up, 3-3. So it was rollercoaster match. Then we come in, rain.”

Medvedev will meet Grigor Dimitrov, while world number one Jannik Sinner’s next opponent will be American 14th seed Ben Shelton.

The 21-year-old has been an ever-present on the order of play this week due to rain delays and finished his third five-set match against Canada’s Denis Shapovalov on Court One.

Shelton won 6-7 (4) 6-2 6-4 4-6 6-2 and has now spent a remarkable 10 hours and 22 minutes on court over his three matches.

Contrast that with Australian ninth seed Alex De Minaur, who got a walkover into round four after opponent Lucas Pouille withdrew through injury.

Carlos Alcaraz’s fourth-round opponent will be Ugo Humbert after the Frenchman won his delayed match against American Brandon Nakashima in four sets.