Djokovic reaches 16th Wimbledon quarter-final after hard-fought victory against Alex De Minaur

Novak Djokovic defeated Alex De Minaur in the Wimbledon 2025 round of 16 match on Monday, July 7, 2025, to advance to the quarter-finals for the 16th time. Following his victory against Minaur, the Serb advanced further in the tournament. He will face the Italian 22nd seed, Flavio Cabolli, next.

But the victory did not come easily for the Serbian tennis star, as he lost the opening set to Australian Minaur in 31 minutes. The 38-year-old started abysmally but eventually gained momentum and assumed control of a cagey battle to win 1-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 to keep alive his quest for an unprecedented 25th Grand Slam title.

This was Djokovic’s first meeting with Minaur on a grass court. The 2024 Wimbledon quarter-final between the two never took place, as the Australian withdrew with a hip injury. Djokovic’s victory came in front of Roger Federer, the player whose record eight men's titles Djokovic is trying to equal, who was among the audience watching from the front row of the Royal Box.


De Minaur continued to cause Djokovic headaches with his shot placement and movement, but the Serb found his range to win the next two sets full of attritional baseline rallies.

Even then, Djokovic looked like he was getting dragged into a fifth set as De Minaur jumped 4-1 ahead in the fourth and had a point for a 5-1 lead, but he slammed the door shut just in time, winning five games straight to reserve his place in the last eight.

"I don't know how I'm feeling, to be honest. I'm still trying to process the whole match and what happened on the court. It wasn't a great start for me; it was a great start for Alex," Djokovic said on court. "He was just managing the play better from the back of the court, and I didn't have many solutions. I was very pleased to hang tough in the right moments and win this one," he added.

Djokovic has now won 43 of his last 45 matches at Wimbledon, and not since 2017 has he failed to reach the final. The two losses were against Carlos Alcaraz in the last two finals, but for half an hour on Monday it looked as though Old Father Time might finally be catching up with him.