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Defending champion Novak Djokovic said he never doubted his ability to recover from two sets down to defeat Jannik Sinner and reach his 11th Wimbledon semi-final.
Djokovic triumphed 5-7 2-6 6-3 6-2 6-2 and will face Britain’s Cameron Norrie for a place in Sunday’s final.
It was the seventh time in the 35-year-old Serb’s career that he had battled from two sets to love down at the Slams.
“I always believed that I could come back. I know the experience I have could eventually prevail in these kind of situations,” said six-time champion Djokovic.
“It was just a matter of momentum shift. I felt that the beginning of the third set is crucial to start well, try to break his serve early. That’s what happened.”
His win included a scarcely-believable passing shot that saw him slide, hit a winner and then finish face down on the grass.
“This was absolutely ridiculous,” one tennis fan tweeted. “The time in the match too. I’d have just walked off if I was the other guy.”
“Djokovic might have just hit the best on-the-run backhand of all-time … The flexibility and precision necessary for that passing shot was just insane,” added another.
Djokovic had also come back from two sets down as recently as the 2021 French Open against Lorenzo Musetti in the fourth round and then Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final.
Crucially, Tuesday’s affair was his 47th five-set match. For Sinner, it was just his fifth. So once it went that far it was no surprise the Serb took his record to a ridiculous 37-10 in matches that go the distance.
“I feel like Sinner, coming into the match didn’t have much to lose, but he had a lot to lose when he was two sets to love up,” said 20-time major winner Djokovic.
“I could feel that mentally with him. He didn’t have too many five-set matches in his life and this was his first quarter-final in a Slam, not too many matches on the Centre Court.
“So all these things play a role. It does definitely help knowing that you have been in these particular situations and you had success in the past.”
Djokovic is bidding to go level with Pete Sampras as a seven-time Wimbledon men’s champion.
That would put him just one off Roger Federer’s record of eight.
Djokovic makes expert use of toilet break
He appeared set for a routine afternoon when he swept into a 4-1 lead in the opener and had a break point for 5-1 against the 20-year-old Italian.
Sinner, the 10th seed, saved it and rallied to move 6-5 ahead, carving out an opportunity to serve for the set.
Djokovic saved a set point but a netted service return gave the Italian the set. Sinner, relentlessly unleashing winners from all corners of the court, stunned the top seed again with breaks in the third and seventh games on his way to a two-set lead.
Djokovic immediately left the court just as he had done at Roland Garros last year when he was staring at defeat against Tsitsipas.
“It was just a pep talk, a positive talk. Today it worked,” he said. “I just felt like I had to change something. I was not playing well, I was not feeling well on the court, I was dominated by Sinner.
“Thankfully Grand Slams are played in best-of-five, so I had opportunity to come back.”
The bathroom tactic – which is within the rules but isn’t popular with a section of the tennis world – certainly worked.
A break in the fourth game of the third set enabled Djokovic to cut his quarter-final deficit.
In control, he levelled the tie with a double break in the fourth set as Sinner took a worrying tumble on his ankle scrambling to the Centre Court net.
Djokovic carved out two more breaks in the decider, the second off the back of a stunning, crosscourt backhand on the stretch to go to 5-2 before calmly serving it out.
He will play Cameron Norrie for a place in the Wimbledon final after the Brit was able to see off David Goffin in another five-setter.
Ninth seed Norrie came back to defeat the 58th-ranked Belgian 3-6 7-5 2-6 6-3 7-5 to make the last four of a Slam for the first time.
– with AFP
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