Wimbledon: Djokovic survives bad start to reach 16th q-finals

Novak Djokovic recovered from his worst first set at Wimbledon to battle past Alex De Minaur and into a 16th quarter-final.
The Serbian has not fallen before the final at the All England Club since 2017 but he will need to raise his level if he is to maintain that record after scrapping to a 1-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 victory over Australian De Minaur in three hours and 19 minutes.
Djokovic cannot have played many worse sets at Wimbledon than the opening one here, with the Serbian making 16 unforced errors, including four double faults and dropping serve three times.
It is the sixth time Djokovic has lost a set 6-1 at the All England Club but the first time he has done so in the first set.
The 38-year-old, playing in front of his old rival Roger Federer in the front row of the Royal Box, can be a slow starter and he did not panic, immediately breaking the De Minaur serve at the start of the second set.
At the end of the contest, Djokovic said with a smile: “Sometimes I wish I had the serve and volley and nice touch from the gentleman that is standing right there. That would help.”
The next game took nearly 19 minutes, with De Minaur finally getting the break back on his sixth chance, only for Djokovic to move ahead again immediately – winning a 34-shot rally, putting his finger to his ear and trying to whip up the crowd.