Novak Djokovic marched relentlessly into the Wimbledon semi-finals on Tuesday, producing a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 comeback over Andrey Rublev.
The seven-time champion, always in the hunt for more records, will clash for the second year in the last eight against Jannik Sinner, a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 6–2 winner over qualifier Roman Safiullin.
Djokovic, who played his 400th Grand Slam match on Tuesday. is the third to achieve that mark after Roger Federer and Serena Williams’ Rublev has now lost all eight of his quarter-finals at the majors – a negative Open era record.
He is now into his 46th Grand Slam semi-final.
“I’m still in the tournament, that’s all I’m thinking about,” Djokovic said. “I’m directing my attention to the next match, I don’t like to think about statistics.
“I like how I played today, I had good energy on the court. I’m hoping for another win in a few day’s time.”
The 36-year-old added: “The pressure is paramount every single match, it will never go away.regardless of how much you win.
“It motivates me and inspires me to play my best tennis.”
Sinner came up fifth time lucky as he finally emerged a winner from a Grand Slam quarter final after four defeats.
The northern Italian is the third from his country to play a Wimbledon semi-final after Nicola Pietrangeli in 1960 and Matteo Berrettini two years ago.
The six seed hit 14 aces and broke his 92nd-ranked opponent six times.
“This means a lot to me,” Sinner said of his win. “We’ve put in a lot of hours on and off the court, we’ve worked and sacrificed for this moment.
“I tried to play my tennis – every match has its own story, I’m just happy to be in the semi-finals.”
Sinner said that after dropping the second set after leading by a break, mental training with his team kicked in.
“I’m happy I reacted well in the next couple of sets.”
