Novak Djokovic beats Félix Auger-Aliassime at Wimbledon in 5-set epic

THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB, London — Novak Djokovic is not done.

The 39-year-old seven-time Wimbledon champion came through a five-set, five-hour epic Tuesday on Centre Court to defeat Félix Auger-Aliassime 7-6(10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(4) and advance to the semifinals, six minutes before the 11 p.m. curfew.

There, he will face his toughest hurdle yet on the path to a record 25th Grand Slam title in top-seeded Jannik Sinner. How much this match has taken out of Djokovic will be crucial to deciding the result of that match.

Despite not looking his best — compared with his usual jaw-dropping level, that is — Sinner hasn’t dropped a set since his five-set, first-round win over Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanović.

Djokovic’s path hasn’t been as clean, but until he met Auger-Aliassime, he hadn’t been pushed as hard as he could’ve been. Djokovic dropped a set in three of the four other matches he’s played at the All England Club this year, but Canada’s No. 3 seed provided the most dramatic test, forcing Djokovic into finding his best tennis when his body was screaming at its loudest, as both men covered every inch of the Centre Court grass in the match’s final stages.

It started with a stumble.

In the first set, Djokovic was serving at 4-4 when he hit a backhand down the line and pulled up. The 39-year-old waved to his team immediately and indicated that he would need attention, before retreating to the back of the court and stretching the bottom of his leg out.

He was able to hold serve to love for 5-4, but at the change of ends he took a medical timeout and received treatment on his ankle and calf before returning to the court.

Seemingly revived in the immediate aftermath, Djokovic forced two set points on Auger-Aliassime’s serve in the next game. But the Canadian dug in to hold, and Djokovic was still grimacing in pain in between points. Djokovic saved a break point himself in the next game, then, almost as if nothing had happened at all, won the tiebreak.

As sprightly as Djokovic seemed, he had expended considerable energy on the tiebreak, and Auger-Aliassime took advantage to win the second set in relatively straightforward fashion.

Then came the next blip in action.

The 25-year-old had just evened the match at a set apiece when the tournament referee, Denise Parnell, walked onto court to inform the players the roof would close at 7:40 p.m., more than an hour ahead of Wimbledon’s darkness curfew for outer courts with no roofs.

“Even if both players want it open?” Auger-Aliassime asked.

Djokovic’s protestations were a bit more pointed.

“You’re so proud of your rules, and you’re not sticking to any rules,” he said to Parnell, alluding to the tournament’s inconsistency when it comes to when it closes the roof and why.

According to a tournament spokesperson, there is no hard rule — the decision to close the roof is a judgment call made on a case-by-case basis, with the guiding principle maximizing the amount of outdoor tennis played.

Despite Djokovic’s annoyance, the closure seemed to have no outsized effect on his play, and he surged through the third set.

But as they churned along, with both players dishing out astonishing shotmaking despite their legs clearly growing heavy, things turned again. After playing two sublime games to open the fourth set, Djokovic wasted his early break with a costly bad service game. Auger-Aliassime won a tiebreak to send things to a fifth set at 9:45 p.m.

Djokovic again had break points in the second game of that set, and again they were spurned. That was the only break point opportunity in the set, as both players found another gear — and plenty of energy.

With Auger-Aliassime serving at 6-5, 15-30, the Canadian leaned back and dialed up three monster serves, including one 130 mph ace that landed smack on the center line, before asking the crowd for noise.

They gladly obliged, filling capped Centre Court with shrieks not often heard at Wimbledon. Djokovic chased down a not-good-enough drop shot and coaxed the ball just over the net for a 1-0 lead in the tiebreak, then sent a return into the net to even things at 1-1. He earned a couple of points on errors by Auger-Aliassime, including a botched diving backhand volley, to reach 4-2 on Auger-Aliassime’s serve before the crowd began to sing: “No-le! No-le! No-le!”

Though Djokovic didn’t win for a few more minutes, the death knell seemed to come when he led 4-3 in the tiebreak. Auger-Aliassime was dictating an exchange of singeing crosscourt groundstrokes until he changed direction, Djokovic improbably lunged for a forehand to get a racket on it, and Auger-Aliassime lost control. Djokovic surged to a 9-4 lead, after which both players were left hunched over, leaning on their rackets for support.

Djokovic remained bent over as he tipped his head just so to look at the crowd, raise an arm and ask for some noise.

The fans gave it, then gave it again, this time in the form of a standing ovation after Djokovic won the tiebreak and stood at Centre Court, his arms stretched wide. Then, he danced.

The fans were standing for Auger-Aliassime, too, to pay their respects to the young fighter who gave them such a show. The match was Auger-Aliassime’s second consecutive heartbreaking exit from a Grand Slam, after he lost to Flavio Cobolli in the French Open, also in the quarterfinals.

The opportunity in Paris was even sweeter because Carlos Alcaraz missed the tournament with a wrist injury and both Djokovic and Sinner fell early in dramatic upsets.

The wide-open nature of the French Open prompted many players, not just Auger-Aliassime, to confront the ceiling of their careers.

“Yeah, on one end, like, a bigger perspective, I can’t complain with my life, but I’m in a place right now with my tennis career that it’s tough. You know, I’m a little bit, like, I’m destroyed today a little bit,” Auger-Aliassime said in a news conference after the loss to Cobolli.

“I usually handle losses pretty well, I have to say. Like, my whole career, I was going back to training with optimism and positivity. Now I feel like I’m not the player I want to be, so today is a difficult day.”

Auger-Aliassime arrived at Wimbledon peppy once more and with a shaved head. He said he didn’t have time to sit with those feelings he expressed at the French Open because his grass-court preparation began nearly straight away. He fought Djokovic until the last, but now the pondering will begin again, at least for a little while.

Djokovic will hold off on the career retrospective for the time being. The 24-time Grand Slam champion has a match to prepare for in a couple days.

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