LONDON \u2014 Novak Djokovic saw Arthur Rinderknech falling toward the Centre Court net after a volley and said to himself \u201cplease stay down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Frenchman did \u2014 and 39-year-old Djokovic dove to hit a backhand volley winner on match point for a 7-5, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4) record-equaling victory in the third round at Wimbledon on Friday.<\/p>\n
Djokovic’s 105th win at the All England Club ties Roger Federer on the men’s list for most singles match victories. Martina Navratilova won 120 singles matches at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n
By next weekend, Djokovic would love to equal Federer’s men’s record of eight singles titles, but this one will have to suffice for Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, I was quite stressed out, more tension than usual,\u201d Djokovic said in his on-court interview. \u201cI knew it was going to be a very challenging match for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 24-time Grand Slam champion overcame a blip \u2014 dropping the third set in 18 minutes \u2014 and held his nerve in the fourth-set tiebreaker by hitting back-to-back aces before Rinderknech’s forehand went wide to set up match point.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw him slip and kind of fall down. And I was just like \u2018please stay down\u2019 for that last shot,\u201d Djokovic, who had repeatedly punched his left thigh after losing the third set, said of the final play.<\/p>\n
Joining Federer on 105 singles match wins is \u201ca huge honour and privilege,\u201d Djokovic added. \u201cI propose a matchup for me and Roger for 106.\u201d<\/p>\n
Djokovic will face Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin in the fourth round.<\/p>\n
Also Thursday, defending champion Jannik Sinner beat Jenson Brooksby 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 on No. 1 Court to advance to the fourth round.<\/p>\n
Fonseca loses to Safiullin<\/p>\n
Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin wiped away tears after beating Brazilian rising star Jo\u00e3o Fonseca 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 to reach the fourth round.<\/p>\n
Safiullin, ranked No. 132, dealt with a knee injury last year but this week has eliminated two seeded opponents at the All England Club. He surprised 12th-seeded Andrey Rublev in the first round. Fonseca was seeded No. 24.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old Safiullin, a Wimbledon quarterfinalist in 2023, became emotional when he described his journey back.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the U.S. Open, I had to stop \u2014 for treating my injury,\u201d he said in an on-court interview. \u201cThat time was super tough. Even let\u2019s say half a year ago I didn\u2019t know if I will be able to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Safiullin then paused and used his shirt to wipe away tears as fans applauded on No. 2 Court.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m super happy to be back here,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
In the women’s draw, top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka plays Jelena Ostapenko later on Centre Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 Novak Djokovic saw Arthur Rinderknech falling toward the Centre Court net after a volley and said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-778528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}