Novak Djokovic kept his bid to win the 2026 Wimbledon Championships alive with a four-set fourth round victory over Roman Safiullin.<\/p>\n
Tennis365 watched from Centre Court as Djokovic prevailed 7-6(6), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in a battle lasting three hours and 25 minutes \u2014 and it was even more challenging than the scoreline suggests.<\/p>\n
Djokovic<\/a> had won his first three matches against Safiullin without dropping a set, but he was pushed hard in this fourth encounter by an opponent who impressed with his aggressive, all-court game.<\/p>\n After coming through qualifying at Wimbledon, Safiullin won five-setters against Andrey Rublev and Botic van de Zandschulp before dismantling Joao Fonseca in the third round.<\/p>\n The 28-year-old Russian has bore no resemblance to a player of his current ranking \u2014 132nd \u2014 during his run at the All England Club.<\/p>\n Rather, Safiullin has looked far more like the player he was when he reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2023 and achieved a career-high ranking of world No 36 in January 2024.<\/p>\n After breaking Safiullin in the opening game of the match, Djokovic faced huge pressure on his own serve in the first set.<\/p>\n The Serb lost two of his first three service games and had two fight off two set points on his serve at 2-5, before he battled back to force a tiebreak, which he won with his third set point after trailing 1-3.<\/p>\n Tennis expert reveals why Novak Djokovic has edge over Jannik Sinner for Wimbledon title<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Alexander Zverev can \u2018definitely\u2019 win more Grand Slams as \u2018dangerous\u2019 Wimbledon message sent<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n In the second set, Djokovic lost just five points on serve and earned the only break of the set in the sixth game.<\/p>\n The 39-year-old then found himself 0-2 down in the third, but he broke straight back in the third game.<\/p>\n With Djokovic serving at 2-3, he came under siege and eventually succumbed on Safiullin\u2019s sixth break point.<\/p>\n The tennis great\u2019s frustration boiled over after this setback as he launched a ball into the wall at the opposite side of the court, an act that drew some jeers from the crowd.<\/p>\n Safiullin held his nerve to serve out the set, which was a reward for the level he produced for much of the match.<\/p>\n Djokovic delivered a strong response in the fourth set as he saved a break point in the opening game before emphatically breaking Safiullin to love.<\/p>\n The No 7 seed cruised on serve thereafter and turned on the style with some dazzling return winners and sublime volleys as he approached the finish line.<\/p>\n Djokovic\u2019s level at the age of 39 remains unprecedented, and this was his 106th win at Wimbledon, which has seen him move clear of Roger Federer for the most men\u2019s singles victories at the grass-court major.<\/p>\n While Safiullin deserves huge credit for making his life so difficult, Djokovic will likely not be delighted with playing another tough four-setter that pushed beyond the three-hour mark after his hard-fought wins against Yibing Wu and Arthur Rinderknech.<\/p>\n This was, perhaps, part of the reason for Djokovic\u2019s angry reaction to being broken at an important stage in the third set.<\/p>\n Djokovic has spent a total of 11 hours and 17 minutes on court, and the concern is that the energy he has expended could cost him in the latter stages \u2014 something that was a common theme for him at Grand Slams in 2025.<\/p>\n Many are expecting Djokovic to meet world No 1 and reigning champion Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals, and he may need to be at his best physically if he is to dethrone the Italian.<\/p>\n The 24-time major champion delivered a remarkable display to defeat Sinner in a five-set semi-final at the 2026 Australian Open.<\/p>\n This victory did, though, come after Djokovic had a walkover in the fourth round and benefitted from Lorenzo Musetti retiring in the third set of their quarter-final.<\/p>\n On the other hand, some questions remain over Sinner, who is yet to look entirely convincing at Wimbledon a month on from his shock physical collapse at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n We will soon learn if Djokovic\u2019s body will cooperate when it matters most as he aims to equal Federer\u2019s Wimbledon men\u2019s title record and extend his own Grand Slam record.<\/p>\n If Djokovic were to lift the famous gold trophy on Sunday, he would become the oldest Grand Slam singles champion in tennis history, surpassing Ken Rosewall.<\/p>\n Next up for Djokovic is a quarter-final showdown with either Felix Auger-Aliassime or Alejandro Davidovich Fokina \u2014 two players in fine form.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Exclusive: Fan favourite Marcos Baghdatis opens up about his special connection with Wimbledon<\/a> The post Novak Djokovic continues to defy age at Wimbledon \u2013 but could his latest win cost him the title?\u00a0<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Novak Djokovic kept his bid to win the 2026 Wimbledon Championships alive with a four-set fourth round victory over Roman Safiullin. Tennis365 watched from Centre Court as Djokovic prevailed 7-6(6), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in a battle lasting three hours and 25 minutes \u2014 and it was even more challenging than the scoreline suggests. Djokovic had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Wimbledon News<\/h2>\n
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