Djokovic ‘disgusted’ by display in front of royalty, but ‘breaks curse’ of Federer
A king, a duchess and tennis royalty were on hand to watch Novak Djokovic play Alex de Minaur - and it was a historically bad start for the Serb.
For half an hour it was everything Alex de Minaur had dreamed of.
In front of a typically star-studded Wimbledon centre court crowd that included King Frederik X of Denmark, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh and Roger Federer, the Aussie put on a royal display.
He stood firm in the windy conditions while Novak Djokovic was blustered, and raced through the opening set to lead 6-1 in the round of 16 clash.
The 24-time grand slam champion was in all sorts. It was the most one-sided scoreline in an opening set at Wimbledon in his career.
“I can’t remember when I’ve seen (Djokovic) play a worse set than this, it’s literally been years,” John McEnroe said in commentary. “He’s absolutely disgusted in himself.”
Adding to the pressure was the presence of Federer, who may have seen Djokovic race past his mark of 20 major titles but still holds the men’s record at Wimbledon with eight.
It wasn’t the first time the Swiss master had graced the All England Club while Djokovic was on court - and each time previously the Serb had not dealt with it well.
But despite all, that tennis fans had seen this script before. Djokovic often waits for his opponent to fire the first shot, feels the level and then takes his game to a place that can’t be followed.
And unfortunately for De Minaur, the unforced errors began to rattle off his racket as he dropped the next two sets 6-4 6-4.
Then in the fourth set there was hope again. De Minaur charged out to a 4-1 lead and looked set to send the match to a decider, before Djokovic again repelled him to close it out 1-6 6-4 6-4 6-4.
De Minaur had a game point to go ahead 5-1, but then collapsed as Djokovic won 20 of the final 24 points of the match.
Fresh from his 100th win at Wimbledon on Saturday - making him the third player to achieve that feat after Martina Navratilova and Roger Federer - Djokovic reached his 16th quarter-final at the tournament.
Aged 38, he remains a chance to become the oldest Grand Slam singles champion in the Open era.
“It wasn’t a great start for me, it was a great start for Alex de Minaur obviously. I kind of reset myself in the second set,” Djokovic said.
“I was very pleased to hang in tough in the right moments and win this one.”
“It’s probably the first time (Roger is) watching me and I’ve won the match,” said Djokovic. “The last couple I lost, so good to break the curse.”
“No, it’s great, obviously, great to have Roger, a huge champion and someone that I admired and respected a lot.
“We shared the stage for so many years, and it’s great to have him back.”
In a surprise admission, Djokovic said in his post-match interview he had been nervous about facing the Australian.
“Alex de Minaur has been an established top 10 or top 15 player for the last couple of years so he is very tough to play against, especially on this surface,” he said.
“So I was definitely more nervous coming into this match and I think that reflected in the first set.
“It was a very difficult encounter, a lot of difficult moments for me. Sometimes I wish I had a serve and volley or a nice touch like Roger Federer’s, that would help. But hey, I can’t complain. I still have to run a lot and that’s fine, it is part of my game.”
In the last eight, Djokovic faces Italian 22nd seed Flavio Cobolli, who defeated former Wimbledon runner-up Marin Cilic 6-4 6-4 6-7 (4/7) 7-6 (7/3).
The 23-year-old will be playing in his Grand Slam quarter-final having never advanced past the third round in his seven previous appearances at the majors.
American 10th seed Ben Shelton was the other early men’s victor, defeating Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 3-6 6-1 7-6 (7/1) 7-5 to reach his first Wimbledon quarter-final.
Djokovic is on track to face world No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals after the Italian was given a get out of jail free card when Bulgarian veteran Grigor Dimitrov was forced to retire in their match.
Sinner had been battling an injury to his right elbow and was trailing 3-6, 5-7, 2-2 on Centre Court when Dimitrov injured himself serving an ace.
The Bulgarian collapsed onto the court holding his pectoral muscle and shouted out in pain as Sinner rushed to his aid.
Dimitrov received medical treatment and walked off court before returning to tell Sinner he was pulling out, with the Italian wrapping him in a hug as the Bulgarian wiped away tears.
In the women’s draw, Liudmila Samsonova, beat Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 7-5 7-5 to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final.
Russian seventh seed Mirra Andreeva, 18, also reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time with a 6-2 6-3 win against American 10th seed Emma Navarro, who ended Barbora Krejcikova’s reign as champion on Saturday.
Andreeva next plays former Swiss Olympic champion Belinda Bencic who made her maiden Wimbledon quarter-final with a 7-6 (7/4) 6-4 victory against Russian world number 17 Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Quarter-finals locked in
Gentlemen’s quarter finals:
Jannik Sinner (1) vs Ben Shelton (10)
Novak Djokovic vs Flavio Cobolli (22)
Taylor Fritz (5) Karen Khachanov (17)
Carlos Alcaraz (2) vs Cameron Norrie
Ladies’ quarter-finals:
Aryna Sabalenka (1) vs Laura Siegemund
Amanda Anisimova (13) vs AnastasiaPavlyuchenkova
Mirra Andreeva (7) vs Belinda Bencic
Iga Swiatek (8) vs Liudmila Samsonova (19)
- with AFP
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