Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic was saved by the weather at Wimbledon tonight.

The Serbian, so unbeatable for large parts of the last 18 months, had just gone two sets down to Sam Querrey in his third-round match when the heavens opened for a fourth time on day five.

The Court One crowd hollered their disapproval, but there was no doubting the call was the right one, particularly for Djokovic who can now regroup ahead of the biggest test so far of his bid to win all four grand slams in the same year.

Djokovic lost the first set on a tie-break 8/6 and was then broken twice in the second as he went down 6-1.

It is a situation entirely reminiscent of last year’s fourth round when he trailed South African Kevin Anderson by the same scoreline only to recover, going on to win the title.

If that is to happen this year he will need to find something special when play resumes.

Querrey sent down nine aces and won 83 per cent of the points on his first serve, compared to Djokovic’s two and 70 per cent.

Djokovic was particularly poor behind his second serve. He won 44 per cent of the points on it, with Querrey winning 72 on his.

He was also much better than Djokovic at the baseline, winning 36 of 66 points with the Serb taking 26 of 67.