Wimbledon: Novak Djokovic beats Alex De Minaur to reach quarterfinals

LONDON: Seven-time champion Novak Djokovic ground past Australian Alex De Minaur 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 here at Centre Court on Monday to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the 16th time.

The 38-year-old Serb started nervously losing the opening set in 31 minutes but gained momentum in the second set to keep alive his quest for a 25th Grand Slam title.

Roger Federer, who has won Wimbledon for the record eight times, was watching the match from the Royal Box. As Djokovic, who is trying to equal the record, failed in the early moments.

Di Minaur continued to cause Djokovic headaches after that, but the Serb showed why he is called a legend, winning the next two sets with a full of attritional baseline rallies.

In the fourth set, it seemed like the crowd may get a chance to see a five-set match as Di Minaur jumped into a 4-1 lead, but the Serb slammed the door shut just in time, winning five games in a row to book his place in the quarterfinals.

Djokovic admitted that the start was not great for him, De Minaur played well, and he is pleased with the end result.

"I don't know how I'm feeling to be honest. 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," Djokovic said.

"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."

Meanwhile, Flavio Cobolli overcame Marin Cilic in a 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-6(3) victory to set a quarterfinal with Djokovic.