Djokovic stretched, finds a way to grind past De Minaur

The seven-time champion wasn't at his best, yet found a way to beat the Aussie in four sets

- Shahid Judge

MUMBAI: There was a lot of running along the baseline. Left and right, backhand and forehand, cross-court, down the line. Again, and again. And again.

Until Alex de Minaur launched a backhand slice that fell well wide of the court to end the point. That rally lasted 35 shots ~ the longest at this edition of Wimbledon. It put Novak Djokovic up a break, 2-1, in the second set.

Duly, the Serbian raised a finger to his ear and then egged the crowd to make more noise for him, and then threw ina few fist pumps. After over an hour of the match on Monday, Djokovic was finally fired up.

He lost the first set rather tamely, but then came back strongly to beat De Minaur 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to make it to the quarterfinal at the All England Club for the 16th time.

“It wasn’t a great start from me, it was a great start from (De Minaur),” Djokovic said in his on-court interview after the match. “Very windy, very swirly conditions on the court. (De Minaur) was managing better. I didn’t have many solutions, to be honest, but I kinda reset myself in the second set. I was just pleased to hang in tough in the right moments and win this one.”