Novak Djokovic may never quite know how he came through on Centre Court against Alex De Minaur, but the beauty of Grand Slam tennis is that he doesn’t need to know. His mind switches immediately to the Wimbledon quarter-finals, which he has reached for the 16th time.
Here was a four-set match which felt every bit a contest that took five, those present to witness it no doubt fully aware the 34-shot rallies they were watching were far from normal procedure. This was seven-time Wimbledon champion Djokovic being pushed to the absolute brink, and wearing it in his facial expression and body language for much of the ordeal. And then still getting through.
