Novak Djokovic overcame a volatile start that was not characteristically shaky to avoid his earliest exit at Wimbledon since 2016, achieving a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, in the fourth round of Monday at 11th seed Alex de Minaur.
Djokovic, who won seven of his 24 Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon, advanced to the 63rd major quarter final. However, at the beginning of the 38-year-old Djokovic, he barely went.
He lost the opening set in 31 minutes. Before Monday, he never won less than two games in the opening set at Wimbledon.
But Djokovic turned things around and then said he reset himself in the second set, and considered the end of that set as a change of momentum.
He then surged 4-1 in the fourth and then finally made a real spike. He scored 14 of his final five games and 15 points, saving breakpoints to avoid going down 5-1.
“I’m still trying to handle the whole game and what happened in the fourth,” Djokovic said in an on-court interview. “It wasn’t a great start for me, it was clearly a great start for him. He was better managed… I honestly didn’t have many solutions.”
“A lot of cats and mouse play, a lot of slices,” he continued. “If you don’t feel the ball very well, it’s very difficult to play someone like him.”
Based on the age of the final day of the tournament, Djokovic is the third oldest man in the open era, reaching the quarterfinals of Roger Federer in 2021, after Ken Rose Wall in 1974.
Federer and the eight-time All England Club champions were able to sit in the Royal Box and watch Djokovic’s match on Centre Court.
“It’s probably the first time he’s seen me win a match,” Djokovic said with a laugh. “Breaking the curse is good.”
His bids across the 8th Wimbledon title and the 25th Grand Slam Singles Trophy will continue against Italy’s 22nd Flavio Koboli.
Koboli reached his first major quarter final with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3) victory over 2014 US Open champions and two runner-up Marine Silick.
ESPN research, Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.