It is going to be a battle and I need to be at my best.”

“He is going to be the biggest test I will have faced in the tournament. “It seems like he (Shapovalov) is maturing,” said Djokovic. To do just that, Djokovic is well aware that he will need to find more touch, greater consistency and to sharpen the relentlessness. To try to make history is a huge inspiration. I try to live in the moment and not take anything for granted. I don't know all the stats (but) they do motivate me even more to play my best tennis at the events that count the most in our sport. I'm privileged to be part of the history of this sport that I love. I'm making my own path and my own journey, my own history. “I don't consider myself a bad guy,” said Djokovic, understandably pointedly. He was asked what it was like to be perceived as the chasing ‘bad guy’ of the triumvirate. The stats are impressive but they tell you only so much about the beating heart of the man, too often glibly portrayed as a cold, scientific and occasionally crassly idiosyncratic individual. If he nails that, he will be three-quarters of his way towards the first calendar Slam since Rod Laver in 1969. Djokovic is bidding for a third successive Wimbledon title. Only two other players, Federer and Jimmy Connors, have made it through to more semi-finals. This was his 100th tour-level victory on grass, his 77th at Wimbledon on his 16th consecutive appearance at the Championships. The Greatest of All Time debate will probably never settle in his favour but Djokovic’s feats continue to be extraordinary. Djokovic deserves his place in our affections as much as he does in the Pantheon, this lively, at times hard-fought victory taking him through to his 41st appearance in a grand-slam semi-final, his tenth at Wimbledon, where he meets the rising star, Denis Shapovalov.Īnd then there is the Holy Grail, the quest to draw level with Roger and Rafa on 20 Grand Slams before mortality bares its teeth and spoils our fun. Or, more pertinently, perhaps it is dawning on everyone that the sands are drip-dripping through the timer, that 34-year-old Novak is ageing and we may never see the like of this Blessed Trinity of Champions ever again. Why, they might even have cheered Matt Hancock if he’d suddenly appeared in the Royal Box. Or maybe it was just that anything goes as the Covid shackles came off with a capacity audience admitted into a sporting arena for the first time in 16 months. To judge by the rollicking chuckles and bursts of applause that accompanied his post-match interview following a straight-sets victory over the last unseeded man left in the tournament, the gutsy Hungarian, Marton Fucsovics, Wimbledon is finally taking the defending champion to its heart. Maybe, just maybe, the Centre Court crowd is turning all Love Island as regards Novak Djokovic.

Live score wimbledon 2021