Hollywood superstar Hugh Grant falls asleep in Queen's company at Wimbledon

7NEWS

3 days ago

Novak Djokovic has set up a mouth-watering semi-final Wimbledon clash with world No.1 Jannik Sinner after coming from a set down to beat Italian young gun Flavio Cobolli on Thursday morning (AEST).
But the ageless Serbian tennis legend's comeback victory at the All England Club clearly can't have been that exciting because Hollywood superstar Hugh Grant couldn't even stay awake for it.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Hugh Grant falls asleep in the Royal Box at Wimbledon.
The Love Actually and star was spotted nodding off in the Royal Box at Centre Court during the match in what was a hilarious sight.
If 24-time grand slam champion Djokovic wasn't enough to keep him awake, you'd think the presence of Queen Camilla would be.
But even with the Queen consort of the United Kingdom sitting directly in front of him, Grant couldn't help but close his eyes for a little nap.
Unsurprisingly, the image immediately sparked an uproar of laughter and memes throughout every corner of the internet.
'Did Hugh Grant just fall asleep in the Royal Box?' tennis reporter and author Bastien Fachan wrote alongside a laughing emoji.
Djokovic's 6-7 (6-8), 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 win sets up a 10th career clash with Sinner, who shrugged off any fitness doubts by downing American 10th seed Ben Shelton 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 6-4 in his quarter-final.
The great Serb's biggest scare came as he held a second match point, and took a nasty fall behind the baseline, effectively doing the splits and lying face-down on the grass, after he was wrong-footed by Cobolli's lifeline shot.
But, after being checked on by his concerned opponent and chair umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore, Djokovic got back to his feet gingerly, then somehow inevitably won the next two points to book a place in his 14th Wimbledon grand slam semi-final.
That's another record for the 38-year-old, as he's now surpassed Roger Federer's record of 13 appearances in the last-four and becomes the oldest men's semi-finalist since the great Australian Ken Rosewall in 1974.
'It was a nasty slip and that's what happens when you play on the grass. You expect to fall with the way I move and slide on the grass,' said Djokovic.
'It came at an awkward moment but I managed to close it out. I will visit this subject with my physio and hopefully it will be fine in two days.'
Earlier, Sinner, wearing a white sleeve on his racquet arm to protect his elbow complaint, was ruthless in taking advantage of the rare chances that came his way against the monster-serving, left-handed American Shelton.
'When you are in a match with a lot of tension, you try to not think about it,' said Sinner, who has reached his fourth straight major semi-final. 'It has improved a lot from yesterday to today.'
There was a brief moment in the second set when it looked as if the injury could be concern as Sinner tried to return a 141mph serve from Shelton, shook his right wrist and then clutched the elbow with his left hand.
'You can't go into a match thinking that the guy's not going to be at 100 percent. His ball was coming off pretty big today, so I didn't see any difference,' said Shelton, who was unable to take either of just two break-point chances.