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.
He lost the opening set in 31 minutes. Before Monday, Djokovic had never won fewer than two games in an opening set at Wimbledon.
But he turned things around, saying afterward that he reset himself in the second set and considered the end of that set a momentum shift.
Djokovic then 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 in the fourth," Djokovic said in his on-court interview. "It wasn't a great start for me, was a great start for him obviously. ... He was managing better ... I didn't have many solutions to be honest."
"Lot of cat and mouse play, a lot of slices," he continued. "It's extremely difficult to play someone like him if you're not feeling the ball very well."
It was Djokovic's 101st career match win at Wimbledon, tying his most (101 at French Open) at any one major. That's also tied for the fourth-most match wins by any man at one major in the Open era.
Based on age on the final day of the tournament, Djokovic is the third-oldest man in the Open era to reach the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, after Roger Federer in 2021 and Ken Rosewall in 1974.
Federer, and eight-time champion at the All England Club, was sitting in the Royal Box to watch Djokovic's match on Centre Court.
"It's probably the first time he's watching me that I won the match," Djokovic said with a laugh. "It's good to break the curse."
His bid for an eighth Wimbledon title and 25th Grand Slam singles trophy overall will continue against No. 22 Flavio Cobolli of Italy.
Cobolli reached his first major quarterfinal with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3) victory over 2014 US Open champion and two-time major runner-up Marin Cilic.
ESPN Research, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
