LONDON (AP) — After all the records Novak Djokovic has broken, the latest one left him rather unimpressed — even though he surpassed his great rival Roger Federer.
Djokovic set a men's record for most match wins at Wimbledon after overcoming a surprisingly tough challenge from 132nd-ranked qualifier Roman Safiullin on Sunday to reach the quarterfinals.
The seven-time Wimbledon champion screamed out his frustrations at times — later referring to the
outbursts as “meltdowns” — before winning 7-6 (6), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 for his 106th match victory at the All England Club. That puts him one ahead of Federer atop the all-time list for men, although he still trails Martina Navratilova’s 120 match wins.
That's clearly not the record he's after at Wimbledon, though. Not when he's also trying to match Federer's eight titles and become the first man or woman to win 25 major trophies.
“Not on my priority list,” Djokovic said. “Didn’t even know about it until after the last match win ... That’s really quite insignificant to me at the moment.”
The win also put him into the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the 17th time — one behind Federer’s record. But the Serb acknowledged that he will have to raise his game in order to go further.
“Survive to thrive, that’s how I feel,” Djokovic said when asked to sum up his first week of the championships. “So hopefully the thriving part is coming.”
The 39-year-old Djokovic has never lost a Grand Slam match against a player ranked as low as Safiullin, or to a qualifier, but he looked in danger at times on Centre Court.
Djokovic had to save two set points when trailing 5-2 in the first set and was warned for apparently yelling out an obscenity in Serbian on Centre Court when he was broken early in the third. He then drew boos from the crowd when he hit the ball away in frustration after losing that set.
In his on-court interview, he apologized for what he called “the outbursts, the meltdowns.”
“I had a few of those today,” he said.
Djokovic, who is renowned for his mastery of baseline tennis, also said he opted to play more at the net than usual after repeatedly being outplayed in long rallies by Safiullin.
“I don’t get to feel inferior from the back of court with too many players, to be honest, throughout my career,” Djokovic said. “Today it was one of those days where I didn’t want to stay in the rally for too long. So I had to mix things up. And it worked.”
He quickly seized control in the fourth set by jumping out to a 3-0 lead, and then served out the match at love.
Djokovic will next face third-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime, who came through a five-setter against No. 22 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on No. 1 Court that featured one of the best points of the tournament.
Auger-Aliassime won 6-7 (4), 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-1 in a meeting between the only two men's players who had yet to drop a set in the tournament. Auger-Aliassime had not even lost a service game until he was serving for the match at 5-4 in the fourth set, when his Spanish opponent managed to break back despite hurting his ankle and needing medical treatment.
“I played a few roller-coaster matches over the course of my career, but this is for sure the top of the charts,” the Canadian said. “It was a crazy match.”
One point in particular had the crowd on its feet and even had Auger-Aliassime laughing in disbelief, even though he lost it.
At 3-1 in the fourth set, Davidovich Fokina made it 40-0 after chasing down a drop shot, running back to the baseline to retrieve the next ball by hitting a lob, then returning an overhead from Auger-Aliassime, chasing down a second drop shot and finally diving at full stretch to return a passing shot with a backhand volley.
As the crowd's screams grew louder throughout the point, Auger-Aliassime started laughing even as he chased down that last diving volley, and sent his backhand into the net when the whole court was gaping and Davidovich Fokina was still on the ground.
“I'm actually laughing as I'm running to the ball, I think that's a first,” he said. “The crowd was on their feet as the point was still going on. In my head I was thinking, ‘This is too good.’ And then I missed the open shot.”
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