Novak Djokovic overcame an uncharacteristically unsteady start to avoid what would have been his earliest exit at Wimbledon since 2016, coming through for a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory over 11th-seeded Alex De Minaur in the fourth round Monday.
Djokovic, who has won seven of his 24 Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon, advanced to his 63rd major quarterfinal. But very little went right at the outset for the 38-year-old.
After entering with 41 holds in 42 service games in the tournament, Djokovic was broken in five of his first seven against De Minaur, a 26-year-old Australian who was supposed face the Serb in last year’s quarterfinals at Wimbledon but withdrew with an injured hip.
Despite producing merely four clean winners of his own in the opening set, De Minaur accumulated nearly twice as many points as Djokovic, 27-14. That’s because Djokovic contributed a whopping 16 unforced errors.
He lost the opening set in 31 minutes. Before Monday, Djokovic had never won fewer than two games in an opening set at Wimbledon.
“I can’t remember when I’ve seen him play a worse set than this,” John McEnroe, who won Wimbledon three times in the 1980s, said on the BBC telecast. “I mean, it’s literally been years.”
But Djokovic turned things around in the middle sets, saying afterward that he reset himself in the second and considered the end of that one a momentum shift.
He really surged at the end after trailing 4-1 in the fourth. He saved a break point to avoid going down 5-1, taking the last five games and 14 of the final 15 points.
“I’m still trying to process the whole match and what happened on the court. It wasn’t a great start for me, it was a great start for Alex,” a relieved Djokovic said in his on-court interview. “He was just managing the play better from the back of the court and I didn’t have many solutions. I was very pleased to hang tough in the right moments and win this one.”
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