Alex de Minaur 'frustrated' after letting near-perfect start slip against Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon
Despite a strong start by the Aussie, his Serbian opponent staged a comeback that keeps his hope of a 25th grand slam win alive.
Djokovic will now advance to the quarter-finals after his 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory over de Minaur.
With Roger Federer watching from the Royal Box, the player whose record eight men's titles Djokovic is trying to equal, Djokovic's usually-surgical game misfired badly early on.
"I can't remember when I've seen him play a worse set than this," John McEnroe, who won Wimbledon three times in the 1980s, said on the BBC telecast.
"I mean, it's literally been years."
The Aussie took an early lead, winning the first set, before Djokovic turned the tables and ended the match in the three subsequent sets.
The hustling and bustling of de Minaur's game continued to cause Djokovic headaches, but the sixth seed found his range to win the next two sets full of baseline rallies.
Even then, Djokovic looked like getting dragged into a fifth set as de Minaur jumped into a 4-1 lead in the fourth set.
But the Serb slammed the door shut just in time, winning five games in a row to take his place in the last eight.
"He lifted his level big-time," said de Minaur of that crucial juncture in the fourth set.
"I had a chance to break him and get the double break. He started going after it a little bit more and raised his level, which completely changed the momentum.
"I'm frustrated I let that set slip away. But he's been pretty good in big moments for a very long time.
"In the bigger moments today I think my level dipped, and I didn't rise to the occasion as I needed to if I wanted to beat someone as good as him.
"There's positives (from the match) but where I am in my career I want more. I want to be on the other side of this match coming out on top because that's the next step in my career.
"If I'm going to make the next step, these are the types of matches that need to start going my way."
Speaking on court after the game, Djokovic said he was in mixed spirits after the rough start.
"I'm still trying to process the whole match and what happened on the court. It wasn't a great start for me, it was a great start for Alex," Djokovic said.
"He was just managing the play better from the back of the court and I didn't have many solutions. I was very pleased to hang tough in the right moments and win this one."
De Minaur said he was "disappointed" he could not challenge a resurgent Djokovic, even in a close fourth set.
"I felt like I put myself in a great position," de Minaur said.
It was the first time Djokovic and de Minaur had played against each other on a grass court.
Djokovic has now won 43 of his last 45 matches at Wimbledon and not since 2017 has he failed to reach the final.
Djokovic's bid for an eighth Wimbledon title and 25th Grand Slam singles trophy overall will continue against world number 22 Flavio Cobolli of Italy.
AP/Reuters/AAP
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