Novak Djokovic delighted after breaking Roger Federer ‘curse’ at Wimbledon

Novak Djokovic was in a relaxed mood after battling back to beat Alex de Minaur in four sets and booking himself a place in another Wimbledon quarter-final

Novak Djokovic was all smiles after booking himself another Wimbledon quarter-final spot after a comeback win over Alex de Minaur. Despite being trounced in the opening set, the seven-time Wimbledon winner took the match in four sets to reach the last eight.

The early stages saw Djokovic grappling with blustery conditions and failing to match the intensity of the 11th seed. BBC commentator John McEnroe branded it “the worst set of tennis Djokovic has played in years”.

But the tide turned as the Serbian staged an epic comeback, demonstrating his legendary resilience. Djokovic clawed his way back to a hard-earned win, delighting fans, his team and even Roger Federer, who was observing from prime seats.

And that led to more delight for the Serbian, who quipped post-match: “It’s probably the first time he’s watched me and I won the match!

“The last couple I lost, so it’s good to break the curse!

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“It’s great to have Roger here, someone I admired and respected a lot. It’s great to have him back at his most successful and favourite tournament, no doubt.”

On his showdown with De Minaur, Djokovic remarked: “Sometimes I wish I had the serve and volley and nice touch of the gentleman standing right there [Federer]. That would help! But I can’t complain.

“I still have to run a lot and that’s fine. I was trying to mix it up. I didn’t feel the ball so well in the first set but I got used to the conditions and started to find my forehand.”

And he admitted he’ll need to look back at the match to see exactly what went wrong in the first set.

“I’m still trying to process the whole match,” he admitted. “It wasn’t a great start for me, it was for him. Very windy and swirly conditions on the court, he was just managing them better. I didn’t have many solutions but I reset myself in the second.

“It was a tough game to close out the second set, that was a momentum shift where I felt back in the game. It was a lot of cat and mouse play and he’s so good at it. He’s one of the quickest players on the tour.

“On the grass it’s so difficult to play someone like him – he exposes all your weaknesses. I’m very pleased to hang tough and win this one.”