India, July 8 -- There was a lot of running along the baseline. Left and right, backhand and forehand, cross-court, down the line. Again, and again. And again.

Until Alex de Minaur launched a backhand slice that fell well wide of the court to end the point. That rally lasted 35 shots - the longest at this edition of Wimbledon. It put Novak Djokovic up a break, 2-1, in the second set.

Duly, the Serbian raised a finger to his ear and then egged the crowd to make more noise for him, and then threw in a few fist pumps. After over an hour of the match on Monday, Djokovic was finally fired up.

He lost the first set rather tamely, but then came back strongly to beat De Minaur 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to make it to the quarter-final at the All Engla...