Successful Aging
Djokovic, at 39, is back in the Wimbledon semis after a thriller
WIMBLEDON – Novak Djokovic is not playing often in the extended twilight of his career.
A tournament here; a tournament there. A bit of clay; a bit of grass with a major emphasis on the Grand Slam events that still get his pulse and mind racing even with the other members of the Big Three retired and the big Four-O looming in 2027.
But when Djokovic is willing and able, he is giving us -- and himself -- plenty of material. He is understandably less dominant at age 39, logically less sharp point-to-point with so many breaks in his competitive schedule and not quite so much spring in his elastic limbs.
Only one of his last 15 matches has been a straight-set victory. But what memorable, long-form duels he keeps providing! That has been true in defeat: see Paris last month and his intergenerational tussle with rising star Joao Fonseca of Brazil. That was true in triumph at Wimbledon on Tuesday night against a more established threat: Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada.
Djokovic was a marvel again on Centre Court, the same rectangle of grass and dirt where he has won more big ones than he has lost.
Tuesday’s rousing 7-6 (10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (10-4) victory was equal in length to his longest match at Wimbledon, where he has been playing since 2005, but this was about quality, not just quantity.
“One of the best matches I was honestly part of in Wimbledon,” Djokovic said.
The tension rose early and remained. Djokovic had treatment on his lower left leg during a medical timeout late in the first set and then had to save three set points to win the first-set tiebreaker. Auger-Aliassime struck back in the second set before the roof was closed over Centre Court: a decision Djokovic opposed considering that it was only 7:40 p.m. and there was ample daylight to complete at least another set. I could certainly see his point at an outdoor tournament, but he could not sway the officials, and on they played — and served — indoors.
Each man finished with only two breaks of serve, and though Djokovic played an unconvincing tiebreaker in the fourth set with a chance to close out the victory, he made up for it in the fifth.
This victory did not have the historical heft of some of its predecessors. It was only a quarterfinal, after all, and FAA -- forgive the acronym and the constructive criticism -- has, for all his evident power and talent, yet to prove himself a truly big-occasion performer, yet to reach a major final or make that run that would redefine him.
But FAA, seeded No. 3 at Wimbledon in the absence of Carlos Alcaraz, at least pushed Djokovic to the limit, playing him to a draw until the start of the decisive match tiebreaker. Only then did Djokovic find a way to impose his will and skill, sealing all the cracks and playing airtight tennis when it mattered most. He made only one error that was borderline unforced in the breaker: a backhand that he struck in the tape after a probing FAA forehand.
The rest was classic Djokovic under duress: blocked returns deep in play, extended rallies, clutch serving on the lines. And when he lured FAA into another error after a long exchange to get to match point at 9-4, he bent forward, put both hands on his knees and then raised one arm to pump up the crowd.
The people gave him what he needed, and FAA’s final mistake concluded this thriller that, at five hours and 15-minutes, was equal in length to Djokovic’s victory over Rafael Nadal in their 2018 Wimbledon semifinal. That match was played over two days and probably turned on Djokovic’s tactical decision to keep the roof closed on day two, despite Nadal’s protestations about blue skies above. Tuesdays marathon came in one helping, although that was no guarantee considering that it finished just 10 minutes before Wimbledon’s 11 p.m. curfew.
Djokovic celebrated beating the clock and FAA with a roar and a jig near the net as his wife Jelena and their two young children celebrated in the players’ box.
Djokovic then put it all into perspective during his on-court interview.
“These are the kind of moments I still play tennis for,” he said.
He seemed to enjoy this experience much more than his four-set win over qualifier Romain Safiullin on Sunday: a match in which Djokovic was grumpy and even profane, getting a code-of-conduct violation for swearing in Serbian.
“Survive to thrive,” Djokovic said afterward. “Hopefully the thriving part is coming.”
He flashed some philosophical smiles on Tuesday when he misfired or when FAA’s shots landed on lines, and even if it seemed more like a tactic than a change of heart, there is no arguing with the results.
“I’ve watched plenty of Novak over the years. I’ve analyzed a lot of his matches, whether it’s here, other Grand Slams,” FAA said. “Even at times when he wasn’t playing his best, beating Roger here in 2019, you just feel like in tiebreaks or tight moments, either he serves well or he makes you play the extra shot. Just keeps you in a position where you can’t attack him, but he neutralizes you until he waits for a mistake.”
It was a fine night for 39-year-old sporting luminaries with Lionel Messi doing excellent crunch-time work of his own to qualify Argentina for the World Cup quarterfinals.
“It would be nice to play 90 minutes like him,” Djokovic quipped.
It surely would be, and it would also help Djokovic’s chances of making it across the finish line at a major, something he has not managed since he won his 24th Grand Slam singles title at the 2023 US Open. Since then, he has repeatedly run out of steam in the quest for No. 25 against the New Two of Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
Guess whom Djokovic will face on Friday in the men’s semifinals at Wimbledon?
He can take heart, quite a lot of heart, from having beaten Sinner in the Australian Open semifinals in January. He will have the benefit of two full days of rest before they face off at Wimbledon, but Sinner has had a much more expeditious path to their semifinal and is 15 years younger. He is also the defending champion, although Djokovic certainly knows the path to the title, having won seven times at Wimbledon, one short of Roger Federer’s men’s record.
“Novak has won this tournament so many times, and he knows exactly how to approach it,” Sinner said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
This will be Djokovic’s 15th Wimbledon semifinal and 55th major semifinal: astonishing figures. But he was not much interested in statistics on Tuesday night.
“I’m going to look at all the numbers and everything when I finish my career,” he said. “Right now, it’s all business. I’m still in the tournament, and I have to face the best player in the world in two days time.”
Sinner was an irresistible force from March to late May, sweeping the Masters 1000 events, but he has yet to win a major in 2026, losing to Djokovic in Melbourne and melting down in astonishing fashion with a two-set, 5-2 lead in the second round of Roland Garros against a grateful Juan Manuel Cerundolo, who was surely just as surprised as the rest of us.
Sinner, who has struggled in the heat, has since undergone medical testing in Italy to explore what might be happening to his body. He has not shared the results. The weather is uncommonly warm in London, and Friday’s semifinal will be in the heat of the day. And yet grasscourt tennis is not as grinding as claycourt tennis, and Sinner is a much better returner than FAA and has a much more percussive and reliable two-handed backhand to go with his monster forehand.
After a shaky opening match here against Miomir Kecmanovic that went five sets, Sinner has stabilized, winning four matches in straight sets. But he has still made some out-of-character errors, particularly on the forehand side, and has had an undeniably soft draw, facing no one ranked inside the top 45.
Djokovic, seeded 7th, will be the first seeded player he faces and represents a significant step up.
For now, Sinner leads the head-to-head 6-5. He had won five straight, often by lopsided margins, before the surprise defeat in Australia. Sinner also won their last match on grass, beating Djokovic 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals here last year before beating Alcaraz to take the title
“With Novak, I feel like every match is different,” Sinner said. “Even when I had this small streak with him, I felt like every match has really its own story, especially when you play on a surface like this. If you have a bad serving day or are not feeling the ball very well, it’s going to be very, very tough.”
Sinner at his best surely wins this match, but will he be back at his best?
Win or lose, Djokovic has already had a memorable Wimbledon, becoming the oldest player to reach the singles semifinals since Ken Rosewall, who was an older 39 in 1974 when he made it all the way to the final before getting routed by the much younger, much brasher American Jimmy Connors.
Connors had his own run to a major semifinal at age 39 at the 1991 US Open, which seemed like a minor miracle at the time. Djokovic is normalizing such feats, and he was asked very late Tuesday night if he was ever surprised by what he is able to achieve at this late stage of the game?
“I mean, yes and no,” he answered. “I guess yes, at this stage that I’m still able to battle these young guys that have 15 years less than me, that I’m able to beat them at the tightest possible scoreline. Of course, in a sense, it is really a nice surprise. But…I always have the highest expectations for myself. I can be very self-critical, very hard on myself. At the same time, I try to also enjoy the moments like this.
“I don’t know what tomorrow brings. To be honest, let’s see. I’m still in the tournament. I still want to go at least one more step further. But this was as good as a final for me. I gave it all that I had, gave it my best. I think it was really thrilling experience for us players, but also the crowd present in the stadium, I’m sure also a lot of people watching on TV. I’m glad to be part of another historic match.”
Bring on the ice baths and the cryotherapy and the hyperbaric chambers and whatever else Djokovic has up his short sleeves. Then bring on Sinner.
CC
Loved the urgency of this piece being written at 4am. Fresh analysis in long format in an age where news is only bite size and gets old too quickly.
That has to be THE SQUEAKIEST win I have ever seen. Right up to the 10-point match supertiebreaker, Auger-Aliassime looked to me like the stronger player and like he would inevitably win, but then he threw it away on a bunch of unforced errors, losing the breaker 10-4 and leaving the match looking more like he lost it than like Djokovic won it. But that's just the thing about Djokovic, he has a way of just hanging around until the opposition starts to unaccountably miss shots on unforced errors. He's nothing like Hoad, Gonzales and Kramer used to be, bombers who blew opponents right of the court with huge games of overwhelming power. No, Djokovic is more like a patient locksmith or safe-cracker who tinkers and fiddles around until he finally hits on the right combination to break open the bank vault. You'd think the older man would tire first and start making all the errors, but no, this guy has discovered the fountain of youth, and it's his younger opponents who start making more errors than he does. The score was 7-6(10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(10-4). It looked to me like Djokovic won the first set breaker on one fluke shot, which gave him what I considered a very shaky lead, and when he lost the second set 6-3, I figured he was finished and that Auger-Aliassime would blow him out, but then Djokovic jumped out of his time machine and turned the tables on A-A, winning the third set 6-3 for a two sets-to-one lead, making me think that the old boy was going to win in spite of the fact that A-A still looked much more solid and stronger and was out-acing the Djoker practically 2 to 1. Then, when A-A won the fourth set breaker, I figured the Djoker was really finished for good. But no, somehow, he just kept hanging around until, well, you know what happened. I hate to tell you, but if he could do this to Auger-Aliassime, he can do it to Sinner on Friday and to whoever he would play on Sunday. This guy is dangerous. VERY dangerous. He's like the snake in the Garden of Eden. Careful, he bites!