LONDON
\nNovak Djokovic battled through Wimbledon\u2019s longest ever quarter-final to beat Felix Auger-Aliassime in a five-set epic on Tuesday as the former champion set up a titanic clash with defending champion Jannik Sinner.
\nDjokovic defied a calf injury suffered in the first set to win 7-6 (12\/10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (4\/7), 7-6 (10\/4) in a Centre Court classic lasting five hours and 15 minutes.
\nThe indefatigable 39-year-old will meet world number one Sinner on Friday for a place in the final.
\nWhile Sinner beat German veteran Jan-Lennard Struff in straight sets on Tuesday, Djokovic had to dig much deeper before he subdued Canadian third seed Auger-Aliassime in one of the all-time gutsy Wimbledon performances.
\nThe question now is whether the Serb will have anything left in the tank to beat Sinner.
\nAsked how he saw off Auger-Aliassime, Djokovic said: \u201cWith racquet and a lot of heart. I have management of the nerves and the extreme tension you feel in these kind of matches.
\n\u201cTowards the end, it was really anyone\u2019s game. What can I say, these are the kind of moments that I still play tennis for, for sure.
\n\u201cI was telling the kids to go to sleep, I\u2019m glad they stayed because it was one of the best matches I was part of on this court in my career.\u201d
\nDjokovic has advanced to a record-extending 15th Wimbledon semi-final and 55th at the Grand Slams.
\nHe is into the Wimbledon last four for an eighth consecutive time, setting a new record ahead of Roger Federer for the longest streak of men\u2019s singles semi-final appearances at the All England Club.
\nDjokovic is only the second player in the Open era to reach the men\u2019s semi-finals at Wimbledon aged 39 or older after Ken Rosewall in 1974.
\nSinner wasn\u2019t at his best against Struff, but his booming serve kept the world number 74 at bay as he reached his 10th Grand Slam semi-final and third at Wimbledon.
\n\u201cIt was a huge test today. I felt comfortable on the physical side, a good step forwards,\u201d the Italian said.<\/p>\n
\u2018I was very nervous\u2019
\nIn the women\u2019s tournament, Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova reached their first Wimbledon semi-finals.
\nThe all-American encounter on Centre Court went Gauff\u2019s way as the seventh seed beat Jessica Pegula 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
\nGauff \u2014 a two-time major champion \u2014 was appearing in the last eight at the All England Club for the first time.
\nSeven years after she became the youngest player to reach the Wimbledon main draw aged 15 and then stunned Venus Williams on her debut, Gauff is two wins away from an even more impressive feat at the All England Club.
\nThe 22-year-old is into the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time since winning her most recent major at the French Open last year.
\nShe is the youngest player to appear in all four Grand Slam semi-finals since Maria Sharapova in 2007.
\n\u201cConsidering I hadn\u2019t won a match in two years on grass before this tournament, I\u2019m really happy with how I played today,\u201d Gauff said.
\nIn the last four, Gauff faces Czech 10th seed Muchova, who beat Japanese star Naomi Osaka 7-6 (7\/4), 6-4. Muchova had never been past the first round in her four previous visits to Wimbledon, but she won the grass-court tournament at Bad Homburg in June.
\n\u201cOh my god, I was very nervous! I know you can\u2019t lose focus because if you give her a little chance, she takes it,\u201d Muchova said.
\nThe 29-year-old lost her only Grand Slam final appearance against Iga Swiatek at the 2023 French Open.
\nFrench Open champion Alexander Zverev finished off his delayed last-16 tie against Jiri Lehecka, winning 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (8\/6) to book a quarter-final clash with American sixth seed Taylor Fritz.
\nZverev had been leading by two sets when the match was halted by the 2200 GMT curfew on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON Novak Djokovic battled through Wimbledon\u2019s longest ever quarter-final to beat Felix Auger-Aliassime in a five-set epic on Tuesday as the former champion set up a titanic clash with defending champion Jannik Sinner. Djokovic defied a calf injury suffered in the first set to win 7-6 (12\/10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (4\/7), 7-6 (10\/4) in a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":100006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100012,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99986\/revisions\/100012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}