SAM Querrey resides in the US gambling capital of Las Vegas, Nevada, and can turn his hand quite respectably to both basketball and baseball. He was on the brink of achieving the tennis equivalent of a royal flush, a slam dunk and a home run all rolled into one on Court No 1 yesterday when play was suspended with him leading Novak Djokovic, the all-conquering World No 1, by a 7-6 (6), 6-1 scoreline.

The clouds burst just as the Serb took his seat after losing that second set, as if the Gods too couldn't quite believe what they were seeing. So comprehensively had the 28-year-old rained on the parade of the man who came into this year's Wimbledon with all four major titles in his kit bag that the obvious conclusion was that the rain had come to his rescue. Twelve months back, after all, the similarly-proportioned Kevin Anderson of South Africa taken the first two sets against the Serb here only to be pegged back to two sets all by the time rain stopped play, with Djokovic returning the next to day to complete his recovery.

There was just a suspicion, though, that things might be different this time. Not the most mobile or athletic of players, Querrey too has the option of recharging his batteries and reflecting on his game plan. Should he continue to rain serves and giant forehands down on the Serb in this manner, chipping and charging effectively on his return game, Djokovic may not be the reigning champion much longer.

Formerly as high as No 17 in the world, it would be wrong to dismiss Querrey's pedigree, not least as he has won Queen's in 2010, the same year he met Andy Murray in the last 16 here. But the 28-year-old had lost in the first round at both the Australian Open and Roland Garros this year and few were tipping him to halting Djokovic's run of 30 Grand Slam wins which is unprecedented in the Open era. Many still have their doubts. Twenty eight Grand Slams in all have come and gone since Djokovic last crashed out at this stage, back in 2009.

But so sustained and unrelenting has Djokovic's excellence been that you tend to forget that no-one in sport is above the shock result in sport. And coming in without a grass court tournament as usual, the Serb quite simply hasn't shown that same level of excellence yet. James Ward and Adrian Mannarino had found frailties and yesterday it was Querrey's turn. Winning 83% of his first serve points and 72% on his second serve, and teeing off on the Serbian's second serve, Querrey carved out four break point chances in the first but couldn't take any of them, only to find the answers when he needed them in the tiebreak. Two more service breaks did the trick in a seriously one-sided second set before the rain arrived again to offer Djokovic hope of salvation.

The big news of the day up until this point was the rebirth of one of the sport's biggest talents. While Stan Wawrinka's gripping four-sets defeat to Juan Martin del Potro on Centre Court ostensibly removed another obstacle from Andy Murray's path, the re-emergence of the 6ft 6in tower of Tandil after years of wrist issues was something both to gladden the heart and place an element of fear in the other title challengers in the men's game.

These two men had three Grand Slam titles between them but it was the 27-year-old Argentinian, playing in his first major since the 2014 Australian Open, who discovered the whip hand at the end of almost three hours of the most intense action. One break of serve either way was sufficient to decide three of the sets, with the third set, which went Del Potro's way after two service breaks each, proving pivotal. The crowd grew behind the Argentinian with every passing game.

Del Potro, an Olympic bronze medalist here in 2012, said he wasn't backing himself to add Wimbledon to the 2009 US Open title just yet. So seriously had the Swiss man taken his grasscourt bid that he had added 2006 champion Richard Krajicek to his resume, but Del Potro too had a former Wimbledon winner in his corner. Along with Ivan Lendl, Dani Vallverdu was part of Andy Murray's successful 2013 team.

"It feels amazing, I feel alive again," said Del Potro, who was granted an audience with Pope Francis, of Argentina, recently. "As you can see, my backhand is not 100% yet, because now I'm playing too much slices. I don't know if I can be in the top positions again. But I beat one of the guys who is playing great tennis this season and I couldn't expect this victory."

Wawrinka cursed the cardinal sin of second guessing himself. "I start to think a little bit too much what to do," he said. "That's make the whole difference."