Novak Djokovic overcomes historic bad start to reach Wimbledon quarter-finals

By Eleanor Crooks, PA Sport Correspondent

Novak Djokovic recovered from his worst first set at Wimbledon to battle past Alex De Minaur and into a 16th quarter-final.

The Serbian has not fallen before the final at the All England Club since 2017 but he will need to raise his level if he is to maintain that record after scrapping to a 1-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 victory over Australian De Minaur in three hours and 19 minutes.

Djokovic cannot have played many worse sets at Wimbledon than the opening one here, with the Serbian making 16 unforced errors, including four double faults and dropping serve three times.

It is the sixth time Djokovic has lost a set 6-1 at the All England Club but the first time he has done so in the first set.

The 38-year-old, playing in front of his old rival Roger Federer in the front row of the Royal Box, can be a slow starter and he did not panic, immediately breaking the De Minaur serve at the start of the second set.

At the end of the contest, Djokovic said with a smile: “Sometimes I wish I had the serve and volley and nice touch from the gentleman that is standing right there. That would help.”

The next game took nearly 19 minutes, with De Minaur finally getting the break back on his sixth chance, only for Djokovic to move ahead again immediately – winning a 34-shot rally, putting his finger to his ear and trying to whip up the crowd.

Djokovic and De Minaur were supposed to meet in the quarter-finals last year only for the Australian to be forced to withdraw ahead of the match because of a hip injury.

The 26-year-old has been one of the most consistent players on the ATP Tour but trying to pull off big wins at grand slams has been akin to banging his head against a wall, with De Minaur never having gone beyond the last eight.

Cheered on by fiancee Katie Boulter, back he came to 3-3 only to immediately drop serve once more, and the key moments of the match arguably came in the final game of the set, when the 11th seed twice had a chance to level once more.

But De Minaur could not take either and Djokovic roared in celebration when he clinched the game.

There were still challenging moments, but a break in the ninth game of the third set pushed Djokovic into the lead for the first time, and he recovered from 4-1 down to win the fourth.

The sixth seed admitted he had been nervous coming into the match having never faced De Minaur on grass before.

“It wasn’t a great start for me,” he said. “It was a great start for him, obviously. Very windy, very swirly conditions on the court. I didn’t have many solutions but I kind of reset myself in the second.

“Tough game to close out the second set, that was maybe a momentum shift. A lot of cat and mouse play. He’s so good at it. It’s tough when you’re not feeling the ball that well. He exposes all your weaknesses. I’m very pleased to hang in tough at the right moments and win this match.”

Next up, Djokovic finds an unexpected quarter-finalist facing him in the shape of Italian 22nd seed Flavio Cobolli.

The 23-year-old dropped his first set of the tournament but saw off former finalist Marin Cilic 6-4 6-4 6-7 (4) 7-6 (3).