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De Minaur shakes but cannot defeat determined Djokovic

De Minaur shakes but cannot defeat determined Djokovic

Perth Now07-07-2025
For a heady half-hour Alex de Minaur was in dreamland, for three hours he was in contention, but ultimately he was unable to achieve what would have been one of the biggest wins of his career and knock over Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon.
De Minaur won the first set 6-1, stunning Djokovic, the Centre Court crowd, and millions watching on television.
But Djokovic was not going to let his own dream of winning a record 25th grand slam, eclipsing Margaret Court, slide away. He refocused and came back to defeat de Minaur 1-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 in three hours, 19 minutes to reach his 16th Wimbledon quarter-final.
"I didn't have many solutions in the first set," he said. "There were a lot of challenging moments for me.
"It was a tough game to close out the second set, I felt that was a momentum shift."
It was, but as late as midway through the fourth set de Minaur had a break and looked set to force a fifth only for Djokovic to up a gear and ruthlessly finish off the 11th-seed.
De Minaur had been waiting a year for this match, having been forced to withdraw from a quarter-final date with Djokovic last year due to the hip injury that dogged him through the back half of last year.
The 26-year-old had beaten Djokovic at Perth in the United Cup in the interim, but to do so at Wimbledon, where the Serb has won seven times, would be something else entirely.
But while he is a champion, he is an aging one: the 38-year-old was bidding to become the third oldest Wimbledon quarter-finalist after Ken Rosewall in 1974 and Roger Federer in 2021.
The latter was watching from the Royal Box, along with England Ashes veterans Joe Root and James Anderson, and must have been astonished by what he was watching as de Minaur swept the first set.
Djokovic double-faulted on the very first point of the match and while he followed that with an ace down the centre the tone had been set.
Troubled by a gusting wind the Serb continued to struggle with his serve dishing up four double faults in the set, getting fewer than half his first serves in and winning the point on only 18 per cent of his second serves.
He also made 16 unforced errors prompting former Wimbledon champion John McEnroe to state on BBC commentary, "I can't remember when I have seen him play a worse set than this, it's literally been years. It's incredible to see him play like this."
But that was to give insufficient credit to de Minaur. His first serve accuracy was even worse but there were no double faults and he backed his second serve to the extent he won 75 per cent of points on it.
His trademark scurrying seemed even more effective than usual, covering the grass with extraordinary speed but arriving at the ball with the composure and poise to deliver some superb passing shots and drop volleys.
While the first set was a mind-blowing walkover what followed was a lot more competitive. The sun came out, the wind dropped, and Djokovic found his rhythm.
But de Minaur was equal to the challenge. Djokovic claimed the second set but it took him more than an hour as the pair traded breaks of serve and he had to save a break point when serving for the set.
The third stanza was studded with magnificent shots from both, with each applauding the other. But Djokovic secured the first break, in the ninth game, and served out.
The Australian would not go quietly, snagging an early break to race into a 3-0 lead in the fourth set. But at 4-1 he failed to take a break point and that proved crucial.
The end came quickly as Djokovic broke, and broke again.
De Minaur was warmly cheered as he left court, with Djokovic leading the applause, but it was another case of so near, but so far.
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A sequel to the 2002 sports-drama movie Bend It Like Beckham is in the works. The film, which starred Keira Knightley, Parminder Nagra and Johnathan Rhys-Meyers, is widely credited with inspiring a generation of women to play football, and director Gurinder Chadha thinks now is the perfect moment to launch a sequel. 'We've been part of changing the game for women, so it felt like this was a good time for me to go back and investigate the characters,' the 65-year-old filmmaker told the BBC. The England women's team has enjoyed significant success in recent years and faced Spain in the final of Euro 2025 overnight, a repeat of the 2023 Women's World Cup final in Australia won 1-0 by the Spanish. Chadha says attitudes towards women's football have changed since the first movie, but admits more progress is needed. 'A lot has changed since the original movie, but I think that people still don't think that women should play football,' she says. 'There are people who still don't take it seriously, although the Lionesses are riding high. 'I've left it a while, but I thought: look at the Euros, look at the Lionesses.' Chadha hopes the sequel will spread a positive message and 'challenge' stereotypes. 'What I did was say you can do what you want, and you can have it all, and I think that's a really great message to put out again,' she says. 'I think there's still stuff to say, and stuff to challenge.' Bend It Like Beckham proved to be a big moment in Keira Knightley's career, but the actress previously revealed that her friends scoffed at the idea of making the movie. During an appearance on The Tonight Show, she told host Jimmy Fallon: 'I literally remember telling people I was doing it and it's called Bend It Like Beckham, and them going, 'Oh that's really embarrassing'. And they were all like, 'Don't worry. Nobody will see it. It's fine.'' Knightley noted that 'women's soccer was not as big' in 2002 as it is now, and so her friends assumed that the movie would flop at the box office. 'Women's soccer was not as big back then, and so the idea of the whole thing was sort of ridiculous,' she says. Despite this, the film proved its doubters wrong, earning more than $70 million at the box office and even inspiring a musical adaptation. And Knightley — who also starred in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise — is still constantly reminded of her role in the movie by fans. 'It's amazing because it's still the film even today, you know, if someone comes up to talk to me about my work, it's that one,' she says. 'It's so loved. It's amazing.'

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