London, July 10: Novak Djokovic’s search for his personal Holy Grail – a 25th Grand Slam title and an eighth title here – goes on. But only just.
He emerged victorious from a bruising three-hour, 11-minute battle with Flavio Cobolli 6-7(6), 6-2, 7-5, 6-4. He survived a painful tumble at the end of the fourth set.
He came through the barrage of forehands and big serves from the man 15 years his junior. And after all that, he has Jannik Sinner to face in the semi-final.
“First I have to say huge congratulations to Flavio for an amazing tournament and also a great battle today,” Djokovic said. “Great performance from him.“I saw him play here, I knew he was playing well. He was playing on a really high level.“I think what surprised me a lot is his serve. He was serving at a really fast pace and going for his shots. He’s such a talented and skilful player.“He’s definitely of the guys we will be seeing in the future much more.“It means the world to me that at 38 I’m still able to play in the final stages of Wimbledon. I’m going to have Sinner in the next round, that’s going to be a great match-up.”
Cobolli had two major obstacles to overcome, ones that are nothing to do with tennis as such but are more like rites of passage for the developing players.The first was his debut on Centre Court.Simply getting used to the size of the place takes time. Obviously the court dimensions are exactly the same as any court in the world but the space around the field of play seems massive.And yet the whole stadium feels very intimate. It is unique but players tend to be creatures of habit: they like familiarity.Then there was the business of backing up an impressive win. His celebrations after beating Marin Cilic to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final were long and they were emotional – it was as if he had won the title.To come down from that high and then recharge the energy banks for such an important match as this would have taken some doing.But there was Cobolli and his flashing forehand, ripping returns and landing passing shots on a postage stamp.He showed no fear and little respect for Djokovic’s reputation – in Cobolli’s mind, he was just playing another player on another court.He wasn’t, though, and when the seven-time champion and winner of 24 Grand Slam titles broke for a 5-3 lead after 40 minutes, there was not a soul on court who imagined Djokovic would not be able to serve it out to take a one set lead. But he couldn’t.
A couple of returns from Cobolli, a couple of errors from Djokovic and they were back on serve.
The Italian’s service games were under constant pressure (he fended off a set point) but he held on and headed for the tie-break. There he drew first blood on the opening point and, after 68 minutes, converted his second set point. (Agencies)
