“Not really comfortable in my own skin” – Pushed by wild card Fearnley, Djokovic advances in four to reach third round

Novak Djokovic advanced his bid for an eighth Wimbledon and 25th Grand Slam title on Thursday at Wimbledon, edging out wildcard Jacob Fearnley 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London to set a third-round clash with Australia’s Alexei Popyrin.

After racing out to a two sets to love lead, Djokovic encountered much turbulence in the third and fourth set before finally closing out his record 372nd Grand Slam main draw victory in three hours on the dot.

Fearnley, who played college tennis for Texas Christian University, was making his Grand Slam main draw debut this year at Wimbledon. He came on strong down the stretch to put Djokovic in danger of having to go five sets.

“First and foremost, huge congrats to Jacob for an amazing match today, he put a great effort, played very good tennis,” Djokovic told the Centre Court crowd.

Though tested, the seven-time champion righted the ship in the end and closed out the contest in four. He wasn’t exactly pleased with his performance.

“I don’t know if I really had a champion’s mentality today,” he said. “I was not really comfortable in my own skin, particularly in the third and fourth. Sometimes you have rough days when maybe you are not feeling your best, and of course it also depends on the opponent across the net – today Jacob played at a high level and he made me earn this victory.”

Djokovic, still less than a month removed from surgery to repair a torn right meniscus, said he felt fine physically. He was bothered a bit by the wind, and by the strong play of the 22-year-old Brit.

“All in all it was a wind at the end of the day, and I’ll take it,” Djokovic said. “Hopefully I’ll play even better in the next round.”

Djokovic – physically I felt well

“Honestly I was feeling okay,” Djokovic said. “I’m not going to be looking for any excuses for my performance today, again credit to Jacob.

“On my side I think I should have done some things better in the third while I was a break up. Conditions were very swirly and very challenging, and not easy. .. I think physically I felt well. Can I be playing better and moving better? Yes, absolutely, so I’m hoping that as the tournament progresses, each match I’ll be feeling a bit better.”

Djokovic improves to 94-11 lifetime at Wimbledon and 372-49 lifetime at the majors with his win. He is now 20-6 for the 2024 season.

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The 37-year-old Serb won against qualifier Vit Kopriva (6-1, 6-2, 6-2) in the previous round of The Championships.

In the previous round of The Championships, Fearnley, ranked No 277, beat Spanish qualifier Alejandro Moro Canas (7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (12)).

London (Grand Slam), other second-round results (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, grass, GBP 50.000.000, most recent results first):

• Marcos Giron vs. Alexander Zverev
• Emil Ruusuvuori vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas
• Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard vs. Yoshihito Nishioka
• Thanasi Kokkinakis vs. Lucas Pouille: thursday
• Jack Draper vs. Cameron Norrie: thursday
• Taylor Fritz vs. Arthur Rinderknech: thursday
• Holger Rune vs. Thiago Seyboth Wild: thursday
• Quentin Halys vs. Karen Khachanov: thursday
• Gael Monfils beat Stan Wawrinka: 7-6 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (3)
• Flavio Cobolli vs. Alejandro Tabilo: thursday
• Roman Safiullin beat Tomas Machac: 6-2, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3
• Luciano Darderi vs. Lorenzo Musetti: thursday
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Alexei Popyrin: thursday
• Grigor Dimitrov (10) beat Juncheng Shang: 5-7, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2, 6-4
• Denis Shapovalov beat Daniel Altmaier: 7-6 (3), 6-3, 1-6, 6-7 (3), 6-4
• Ben Shelton (14) beat Lloyd Harris (Q): 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-6 (7)
• Alex De Minaur (9) beat Jaume Munar: 6-2, 6-2, 7-5
• Arthur Fils beat Hubert Hurkacz (7): 7-6 (2), 6-4, 2-6, 6-6 (8) ret.
• Francisco Comesana beat Adam Walton: 7-5, 1-6, 6-7 (12), 6-1, 7-6 (8)
• Jannik Sinner (1) beat Matteo Berrettini: 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 2-6, 7-6 (4)
• Jan-Lennard Struff beat Zhizhen Zhang (32): 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (8)
• Miomir Kecmanovic beat Tallon Griekspoor (27): 4-6, 7-6 (7), 1-6, 6-2, 6-3
• Tommy Paul (12) beat Otto Virtanen (Q): 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4
• Roberto Bautista Agut beat Lorenzo Sonego: 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Alexander Bublik (23) beat Arthur Cazaux: 6-4, 7-6 (1), 6-4
• Carlos Alcaraz (3) beat Aleksandar Vukic: 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-2
• Daniil Medvedev (5) beat Alexandre Muller: 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-4, 7-5
• Ugo Humbert (16) beat Botic van de Zandschulp: 7-6 (9), 6-1, 6-3
• Brandon Nakashima beat Jordan Thompson: 6-3, 6-2, 6-2
• Frances Tiafoe (29) beat Borna Coric: 7-6 (5), 6-1, 6-3
• Fabio Fognini beat Casper Ruud (8): 6-4, 7-5, 6-7 (1), 6-3