Djokovic battles past De Minaur to reach quarter-finals

Wimbledon 2025

Dates: 30 June-13 July Venue: All England Club

Coverage: Live across BBC TV, radio and online with extensive coverage on BBC iPlayer, Red Button, Connected TVs and mobile app. Full coverage guide.

Seven-time champion Novak Djokovic battled back from a sluggish start to overcome an inspired Alex de Minaur and reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals.

With longtime rival Roger Federer watching on from the Royal Box, Serbia's Djokovic put in a error-strewn opener and had to fight back from 4-1 down in the fourth set to win 1-6 6-4 6-4 6-4.

The 38-year-old endured an uncomfortable three hours and 18 minutes on Centre Court against Australian 11th seed De Minaur but he is now within three wins of another piece of history.

Djokovic is bidding to equal Federer's record of eight men's singles titles at Wimbledon, as well as a standalone record 25th Grand Slam title.

He will face Italian 22nd seed Flavio Cobolli for a place in the semi-finals, where he could meet world number one Jannik Sinner.

It is not often that Djokovic - who has won 43 of his past 45 matches at Wimbledon - is made to endure such a stern test of his mental resilience on the stage he has dominated on over the past decade.

The sixth seed is through to a 16th Wimbledon quarter-final, second only to the 18 achieved by Federer, but at times it felt as though his progress was under threat.

In a puzzling first set, an out-of-sorts Djokovic had his serve broken three times by De Minaur as the Australian capitalised on his uncharacteristically messy start.

Djokovic was hampered by double faults, with two helping De Minaur go an immediate break up on Centre Court, before he recorded another on his way to going down 4-1.

It appeared he had already turned his attention to the second set when he was again broken to concede the first after 30 minutes on court - and that seemed to be confirmed when he broke his opponent's serve in the first game.

But Djokovic's struggles continued, with the Serb eventually falling to a sixth break point in a marathon second game to set the tone for a topsy-turvy second set.

Djokovic hinted at his improving level as he responded again, cupping his ear to the crowd after another exchange of breaks, but he still had to withstand two break points as he served out the set.

De Minaur stuck to his task, maintaining his high level to keep unsettling Djokovic, but it was the former world number one who found the breakthrough in the ninth game and landed a closing drop shot to complete the turnaround.

His revival was checked in the fourth set when the unfazed De Minaur went from saving a break point to seizing one on his way to taking a three-game advantage.

But Djokovic, having saved another break point to avoid going 5-1 down, finished with an impressive five-game streak to join Federer as one of only three men in the Open era to reach the last eight at Wimbledon over the age of 38.