Alex de Minaur left Novak Djokovic gasping for breath. It wasn't enough

The Age

9 hours ago

Heartbreak for Dimitrov as Sinner advances
World No.1 Jannik Sinner's pursuit of a maiden Wimbledon title is still alive – but only after fourth-round opponent Grigor Dimitrov's horror injury misfortune continued.
Dimitrov led Sinner 6-3, 7-5 and was serving to level the third set at two-all when after the penultimate point of the game he reached for his right pectoral muscle.
The 34-year-old Bulgarian managed to serve an ace on the next point with a three-quarter-pace serve to complete the game, but immediately dropped to Wimbledon's centre court and grimaced as his injury fate sunk in.
Sinner rushed across to speak to Dimitrov, and two trainers soon joined them, as everyone from fans to Roger Federer and Dimitrov's team watched on stony-faced at the cruel twist of fate.
The world No.21 briefly left the court before returning to inform Sinner he was retiring as his emotions spilled over. It is the fifth consecutive grand slam that Dimitrov has retired mid-match due to an injury.
Sinner embraced Dimitrov and helped him pack his bags before declaring in his on-court interview that he did not 'take this as a win at all'.
The Italian had his own injury concern, jarring his elbow during an innocuous-looking fall in the first game. He said he would undergo an MRI scan on Tuesday to assess any potential damage.
Sinner advances to a quarter-final clash with American Ben Shelton, who beat Italy's Lorenzo Sonego, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-1), 7-5. Novak Djokovic and Flavio Cobolli – a 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-3) winner over Marin Cilic – will meet in another men's quarter-final.
Iga Swiatek overcame a slow start to progress on the women's side, defeating Clara Tauson 6-4, 6-1. Up next for the Pole is Russia's Liudmila Samsonova, who edged out Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, 7-5, 7-5.
Mirra Andreeva and Belinda Bencic rounded out the quarter-final field with respective straight-sets victories over Emma Navarro and Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Not capitalising on that advantage to force a deciding set was one of de Minaur's major regrets. Djokovic, as he has done so many times before – which Federer can ruefully vouch for – simply found a way back.
De Minaur staved off two break-back points in the seventh game to haul himself back to deuce, but a third opportunity proved too much to defend.
They fought out another engrossing baseline exchange, only for Djokovic to initially hurt de Minaur with an extreme angle on a cross-court forehand before blasting an inside-out forehand winner to get back on serve. It was a stampede from that moment.
Djokovic held to love to level the set, then afforded de Minaur just one point as he broke the Australian again to earn the chance to serve the match out.
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He did not drop another point in sealing his path to the last eight, finally putting a stop to de Minaur's stout resistance.
Even in defeat, de Minaur was mostly magnificent.
He seldom went far behind the baseline, and played aggressively whenever he could in the many exchanges he found himself in with Djokovic – and the longer they went, the better he was. De Minaur himself said afterwards that he went 'toe-to-toe with one of the greats' from the back of the court.
The world No.11 won 36 of 52 points when rallies lasted nine shots or more, and many of them were absolutely spectacular and left Djokovic gasping for air, or with hands on hips as he went looking for answers from his player box.
De Minaur used a wonderful cocktail of slicing and dicing, net play, pace changes and aggressive shot-making throughout the match. His forehand sometimes lets him down against the best opponents, but held up well against Djokovic.
On the other hand, Djokovic did his damage with first-strike tennis, and almost doubled his rival's winning rate when points were finished in four shots or fewer.
De Minaur had to give up his well-earned Wimbledon quarter-final shot at Djokovic last year because of a freak hip injury he sustained on the third-last point of his fourth-round win over France's Arthur Fils.
In between, he soared to a career-high ranking of No.6, spent months out either side of the US Open recovering from the hip setback, reached his maiden Australian Open quarter-final, then revealed after an early Roland-Garros defeat that he was battling burnout and mental fatigue.
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De Minaur entered this year's Wimbledon under the radar after losing his top-10 ranking and only grasscourt match this year.
But he eased his way into the tournament with a friendly draw – seeing off Roberto Carballes Baena and qualifiers Arthur Cazaux and August Holmgren – and was ready for Djokovic when the opportunity arose.
Half-hour of madness
Very few pundits gave de Minaur any chance of causing an upset, but all bets were off after half an hour of madness.
Battling wind and nerves, Djokovic inexplicably double-faulted four times and committed 11 unforced errors to drop serve twice and sink into a 4-1 hole. The lunacy continued when Djokovic crashed a forehand into the net to not only concede serve for a third time, but also the opening set 6-1.
For context, the 24-time major winner's sole break in the tournament before that came while serving for the match against his compatriot Miomir Kecmanovic in the previous round.
Carlos Alcaraz (2023 final), Federer (2019 final), Sam Querrey (2016 third round) and Rafael Nadal (2011 final and 2007 semi-finals) are the only other players to ever win a set in such dominant fashion over Djokovic at Wimbledon. De Minaur could not have dreamed of a better start.
He deserved at least some credit for what transpired, but the opening set was an extremely rare case of Djokovic largely beating himself. What that set did was give de Minaur a foothold in the contest – and the match truly began from that stage.
Djokovic fights back
Even as Djokovic flexed his muscles to instantly break de Minaur in the second set, the Australian hit back immediately for one-all on his sixth chance after a brilliant return before pouncing to knock off a volley.
But de Minaur consistently had to work overtime on serve, particularly as he struggled to find his radar on his first ball, and Djokovic kicked away once more for 3-1.
De Minaur was broken six times overall, hit only one ace and won a modest 56 per cent of first-serve points.
That said, he broke Djokovic the same number of times, and generated more break points (19-13). Only Alcaraz has ever earned that many opportunities on Djokovic's serve at Wimbledon.
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'I was hurting him from the baseline and gave myself plenty of opportunities … [but] what I need to improve on is the serve,' he said. 'The serve needs to get me out of trouble, needs to help me in big moments, and needs to step up if I want to win these matches.'
The period that came next was arguably de Minaur's finest of the match as he continually dug deep, absorbed pressure and found ways to hang tough with the greatest baseliner the sport has ever seen.
A dipping cross-court forehand pass brought de Minaur back on level terms at three-all, but the Australian double-faulted to start his next service game and eventually conceded to love when Djokovic's drop shot landed out of his grasp.
Even then, as Djokovic served to level the match, he dumped consecutive volleys into the net to leave the door ajar. Two break points followed later, but it was the second that de Minaur will bemoan.
He produced a sensational return, only to miss his next shot as he hunted a cheap point. Two points later, Djokovic was a set-all and urging the Serbian fans to crank the volume.
Both players fended off break points to start the third set, and the standard soared as they went blow-for-blow to four-all. But a Djokovic uprising was never far away in the clutch moments. He restricted de Minaur to 15-40, then watched as another rush of blood from the Australian gifted him the break.
'Nole' chants broke out across the stadium when de Minaur dumped a forehand into the net to hand Djokovic set point, and he dinked a forehand into the opposite service box to go two-sets-to-one up.