Serb bidding to match Sampras, as Ons Jabeur becomes 1st Arab in semis
Novak Djokovic plays his quarter final round match at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships at the AELTC in London, the UK on July 5, 2022. Photo: VCG
Novak Djokovic plays his quarter final round match at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships at the AELTC in London, the UK on July 5, 2022. Photo: VCG
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 on Tuesday.
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 back from two sets to love down to win.
"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."
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 quarter-final was his 47th five-set match. For Sinner, it was just his fifth.
"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... 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.
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 in 2o21 when he was staring at defeat against Tsitsipas.
"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 talk certainly worked.
A break in the fourth game of the third set enabled Djokovic to cut his 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, cross-court backhand on the stretch to go to 5-2 before calmly serving it out.
Norrie reached the semi-finals of a Slam for the first time by defeating 58th-ranked David Goffin of Belgium, 3-6, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Norrie said he was struggling at the start of the match, admitting he was forced to dig deep.
"It was all just adrenaline, using my legs and trying to put the ball in the court, and it's great to get over the line," said the left-hander.
Norrie, who is the first British man to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals since Andy Murray in 2016, said he was going to "take it" to Djokovic.
The result was tough on Goffin, who made the quarter-finals on his last appearance at Wimbledon in 2019.
In Tuesday's match, he hit more winners, 49 to 38, and won more points, with his 151 trumping Norrie's 145.
History-making Jabeur
World number two Ons Jabeur became the first Arab woman to reach the semi-final of a Grand Slam on Tuesday, setting up a Wimbledon meeting with her "barbeque buddy" Tatjana Maria.
The Tunisian went one set down to Czech opponent Marie Bouzkova but lost only two games after that as she powered to a 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 win on Centre Court.
Earlier, mother-of-two Maria also dug deep to beat German compatriot Jule Niemeier 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 despite losing the first set and trailing by a break in the second and third sets.
Jabeur is the only remaining player seeded in the top 15 left in the tournament at the All England Club.
The 27-year-old said she was happy that she "woke up" after a disappointing first set.
"I am really, really happy especially that it happened on this court because I have so much love for this court," she said. "Hopefully the journey for me will continue." But she explained that it would be difficult to face 34-year-old Maria, whom she described as her "barbeque buddy."
She added: "It is going to be tough to play her [Maria], she is a great friend. I am really happy she is in a semi-final - look at her now, she is in a semi-final after having two babies. It is an amazing story."
The Tunisian, who had not lost a set in her run to the quarter-finals, was broken twice by the 66th-ranked Bouzkova in the first set. But it was a different story for the rest of the match as she broke her opponent's serve six times, hitting 30 winners - more than twice her opponent's tally.
Germany's Maria, ranked 103, came back from maternity leave less a year ago after the birth of her second daughter.
In Tuesday's match - only the third all-German Grand Slam quarter-final in the Open era - an early break for Niemeier proved decisive in the first set. The 22-year-old then broke again at the start of the second set to take an iron grip on the match but Maria stormed back, breaking three times to level the match.
World number 97 Niemeier again drew first blood in the deciding set, breaking in the fifth game and holding serve to lead 4-2. But Maria hit back to level at 4-4 and broke again in the 12th game to seal the victory in two hours and 18 minutes.
The German veteran, who saved two match points in the previous round against 12th seed Jelena Ostapenko, made her Grand Slam debut in 2007 and had never progressed beyond the third round at a major before 2022's Wimbledon. But she said she always had faith in her ability to do something special despite her uninspiring record in the Slams.
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