Wimbledon 2025: Novak Djokovic recovers from woeful start to beat Alex de Minaur in style

The National

a day ago

Novak Djokovic recovered from a disastrous start to overcome Alex de Minaur in four sets and secure a Wimbledon quarter-final spot for the 16th time.
Having powered through the previous two matches against Dan Evans and Miomir Kecmanovic without dropping a set, the seven-time All England Club winner went into the match looking in ominous form.
But Djokovic stumbled out of the blocks with a woeful opener filled with double-faults and uncharacteristic misses in a performance that stunned American tennis legend John McEnroe, who was reporting for the BBC.
'It is hard to believe we are watching this right now,' said the seven-time Grand Slam champion. 'I have never seen Djokovic play a worse set than this.'
After that slow start, Djokovic began to build momentum taking the next two sets before finding himself 4-1 down and facing break point in the fourth.
But once again, Djokovic showed his mettle going on to win 14 of the last 15 points and seal a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory on Centre Court setting up a last-eight clash with Italy's Flavio Cobolli.
'I don't know how I'm feeling to be honest,' said the 38-year-old, who has won 43 of his past 45 matches at Wimbledon and is targeting at record extending 25th Grand Slam crown.
'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 de Minaur obviously.
'I kind of reset myself in the second set … that was maybe a momentum shift where I felt I was back in the game. There was a lot of cat and mouse play.
'He is one of the quickest players, if not the quickest player, we have on the tour. On the grass, where the ball bounces very low, it is extremely difficult to play someone like him if you're not feeling the ball really well. He exposes all of your weaknesses.
'I was very pleased to hang in tough in the right moments and win this one.'
Marin Cilic's Wimbledon run is over after the former US Open winner lost in five sets to Cobolli on Court 2.
The Croatian lost to Roger Federer in the 2017 final but had gone beyond Round 2 only once since then and was playing in the tournament for the first time in four years.
A serious knee injury nearly ended his career two years ago but Cilic has refused to call it quits, even dropping down to the second-tier ATP Challenger to rebuild.
Cilic lifted the Nottingham title last month to become the oldest grass-court champion in the history of the Challenger Tour at the age of 36 years and eight months, breaking the record set by Andy Murray (36 years and one month, achieved two years ago in Nottingham).
But few would have predicted his form at SW19 which saw him knock out fourth seed Jack Draper in Round 2, ending the British player's dreams of winning on home turf.
But Cilic fell short against Cobolli who triumphed 4-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-7 over three hours and 25 minutes to reach his first major quarter-final at the age of 23.
In the women's draw, Belinda Bencic secured her first Wimbledon Grand Slam quarter-final spot after the Swiss beat Russia's Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6, 6-4.
Bencic only returned to the tour last October after 13 months out on maternity leave, but swiftly secured the ninth title of her career by winning the Abu Dhabi Open.
After missing all the 2024 Grand Slam tournaments, she returned to major action at the Australian Open in January where she reached Round 4 but then missed the French Open due to an arm injury.
'I always got stuck in the fourth round,' said the 28-year-old former Olympic gold-medal winner, whose best Slam run saw her reach US Open semi-finals in 2019 where she lost to eventual winner Bianca Andreescu.
'It was so important for me to breakthrough to the quarter-finals. It's a dream come true. Watching this tournament growing up … it's crazy, I'm so happy.'