He was issued with a warning by the umpire for one of his outbursts and was later booed by the Centre Court crowd after smashing a ball away in frustration. He was, however, able to find a way to get over the line and book his spot in a 66th Grand Slam quarter-final.<\/p>\n
\u201dI’m known for my outbursts and meltdowns,\u201d Djokovic said in his post-match interview. \u201dI had a few of those today, so I apologise.\u201d<\/p>\n
As well as advancing to the last eight of another major tournament, Djokovic also set the all-time record for most men\u2019s singles match wins at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n
The 39-year-old equalled the record Roger Federer held when he blitzed through the third round but his 106th win at the iconic venue on Sunday afternoon means he now stands alone, ahead of his great rival.<\/p>\n
Speaking at his press conference later, the 39-year-old said achieving that feat had not been high on his list of priorities.<\/p>\n
“I haven’t thought about it. I didn’t even know about it \u200buntil after the last match \u200bwin,” Djokovic said. “That’s really quite \u2060insignificant to me at the moment.”<\/p>\n
He will surely now have his sights on Federer\u2019s record eight titles at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n
Unusually, Djokovic claimed he felt second best against Safiullin from the back of the court but he was pleased he still managed to find a way to come through the tricky encounter.<\/p>\n
\u201dAnother hard-fought win,\u201d Djokovic added. \u201dRoman started very well. He was very aggressive so I didn’t maybe feel as comfortable from the back of the court.<\/p>\n
\u201dI knew it was going to be a challenge staying in the rallies with him, particularly from the end where we were playing against the wind for pretty much the whole match. He is a very solid player, I respect him a lot, I’ve played him on different surfaces but never on grass.<\/p>\n
\u201dHe’s had some great wins this week, I wish him the best of luck for the rest of the season. He should be proud of his performance today.<\/p>\n
\u201dI don’t get to feel inferior from the back of the court against too many players throughout my career, if I’m totally honest. Today, it was one of those days when I didn’t want to stay in the rallies too long, to be honest, so I had to mix things up. It worked in some moments and in others it didn’t.<\/p>\n
\u201dIn the end, I managed to find the accuracy and precision on my first serve, which really got me out of trouble in the fourth set.\u201d<\/p>\n
Djokovic takes no enjoyment after ‘ugly’ win<\/p>\n
Djokovic said he was far from satisfied with his performance, describing the victory as “ugly” despite getting the job done.<\/p>\n
The seven-time champion was pushed hard by the world No. 132 on Centre Court, saving set points before edging a gruelling opening-set tie-break and eventually prevailing in four sets. <\/p>\n
![\"picture\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-2b406adf-8d1c-4e06-8fee-7a6c9e84c9a1-85-2560-1440.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Highlights: Djokovic, Sinner and Sabalenka advance to the fourth round<\/p>\n
Video credit: SNTV<\/p>\n
While the result extended his run at the All England Club, Djokovic conceded he never found the level of tennis he expects from himself.<\/p>\n
\u201dI struggled to find the game, the desired level I’m looking for, that I had, I think, in the second round,\u201d Djokovic continued during his press conference. “To be honest, I haven’t felt really great on the court, so I was relieved to get out of it and get a win.<\/p>\n
“Satisfaction and enjoyment \u200bweren’t part of today’s win. Of course, I’m relieved and happy to win it, but I haven’t enjoyed it. \u200bHopefully, the next match will be better in that sense. But a win is a win, even if you win ugly. Hopefully, I can build from this.”<\/p>\n
The Serbian credited Safiullin\u2019s pressure for disrupting his rhythm but insisted difficult victories are often part of a successful Grand Slam campaign.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been fortunate to play many matches at the highest stage of Grand Slams. My memory is not really good these days. I’m trying to think about which Grand Slams I had similar experience and then ended up winning.<\/p>\n
“There’s been more than a few where you go through a difficult match or two at least on your path to win a championship.<\/p>\n
\u201dI’m a perfectionist at the core. I always want the best game, the best performance for myself and for others and for the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201dIt’s not always possible, and sometimes it’s hard for me to accept that and deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Add TNT Sports as a preferred source here<\/a> to enjoy more content like this.Enjoy daily highlights from Wimbledon 2026 on tntsports.co.uk<\/a>\u00a0and the TNT Sports app, plus watch and stream highlights each evening and the men’s and women’s singles finals live on TNT Sports and HBO Max<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Highlights: Eala arrives, Rybakina shocked and Dimitrov wins thriller Video credit: SNTV The 24-time Grand Slam champion prevailed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55,222042],"class_list":["post-675973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wimbledon-mens-singles-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}