Novak Djokovic may never quite know how he came through on Centre Court against Alex De Minaur, but the beauty of Grand Slam tennis is that he doesn’t need to know. His mind switches immediately to the Wimbledon quarter-finals, which he has reached for the 16th time.
Here was a four-set match which felt every bit a contest that took five, those present to witness it no doubt fully aware the 34-shot rallies they were watching were far from normal procedure. This was seven-time Wimbledon champion Djokovic being pushed to the absolute brink, and wearing it in his facial expression and body language for much of the ordeal. And then still getting through.
Djokovic won 1-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 on Monday afternoon but at one time or other appeared to place blame on himself, his opponent, the glare of the sun, the size of the court, and those sat up in his player’s box. Even in the three sets he won, things were far from plain sailing.
The brutal truth is that as his years tick up and up, this is the sort of match the result of which 38-year-old Djokovic will begin to fall on the wrong side of, in the months and years to come. For now, he still possesses that sixth gear. It has powered him to the last eight and makes him a contender for the title.
Roger Federer, holder of a record eight Wimbledon titles to Djokovic’s seven, watched on behind his Bond-like sunglasses from the Royal Box.
“It’s probably the first time he’s watched me and I’ve won the match,” Djokovic quipped afterwards, the stresses of a fraught match if not fully dissipated then by now mostly alleviated. “The last couple [he’s watched] I’ve lost!”
Djokovic waved his arms in frustration and yelled at himself when shots landed out and De Minaur’s landed in, and at no time was that truer than in a truly extraordinary first set. Djokovic produced four double faults in his first three service games — one of them the very first point of the match — and had his serve broken three unanswered times as De Minaur raced ahead. For the very first time, Djokovic had lost an opening set at Wimbledon by the bruising scoreline of 6-1.
He broke De Minaur’s serve for the first time in the very first game of the second set but then had real trouble consolidating it. In fact, after a marathon game that lasted 18 minutes and 53 seconds, De Minaur broke straight back — every single game at this point feeling a monumental signal of the direction of travel the match was set to take from there.
De Minaur, 12 years his opponent’s junior, was moving around the court so freely, described by Djokovic later as “one of the quickest, if not the quickest player, we have on the Tour.” Djokovic, meanwhile, was struggling to clear the net with routine forehand strokes and looked laboured and irritable.
Each player was then broken in a match lacking anything remotely resembling rhythm, but Djokovic then appeared to wake up momentarily, breaking the 11th seed to love for 4-3. When he saved two break points to serve out to get back on terms at one set all, he let out an almighty roar, as much an effort to rock his opponent further off course from there as a celebration of regaining parity.
The decisive break of a very tense and cagey third set again came late on as Djokovic took it 6-4 also, but De Minaur would not go away. He sandwiched a break of the veteran’s serve by holding twice himself. He led 4-1 in the fourth.
Djokovic’s propensity to heave himself back into contention still endures, though, and he had the last laugh at the end of the match’s most jaw-dropping rally to break back for 4-3. He held for 4-4, broke for 5-4, served himself into the last eight for 6-4, and just like that De Minaur was out. This is, it turned out, still how it all works. After a song and dance, Djokovic still makes it through in the end.
“I’m still trying to process the whole thing,” said Djokovic afterwards, having plodded over to a microphone by the side of the court. “It wasn’t a great start from me. It was very windy conditions and he was managing the conditions much better.
“It was a lot of cat and mouse play. He exposes all your weaknesses. I was very pleased to hang in tough in this one.
“As the match wore on, I was starting to find my forehand and starting to make more winners.”
On Wednesday comes a meeting with Italy’s Flavio Cobolli for a place in the semi-finals. Weathered and shattered, Djokovic ploughs on.
