Mumbai, 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 England Club for the 16th time. "It wasn't a great start from me, it was a great start from (De Minaur)," Djokovic said in his on-court interview after the match. "Very windy, very swirly conditions on the court. (De Minaur) was managing better. I didn't have many solutions, to be honest, but I kinda reset myself in the second set. I was just pleased to hang in tough in the right moments and win this one." This was the first time the pair met on grass court. They were expected to play in the quarter-final last year at Wimbledon, but the Australian withdrew due to injury. On Monday though the 26-year-old was ready for the chase. A counter-puncher, the man from Sydney is one of the fastest players on tour today. He does not possess any obvious weapons on his groundstrokes, but he has the heart and legs to run down even the most challenging shots. That's what made him a difficult customer for 38-year-old Djokovic, who knew there would not be many quick points. "I obviously love winning in straight sets if I can," Djokvoic said. "But in days like this where you progress in the tournament, the matches are only going to be tougher. Alex has been established in the top 10, top 15 for the last couple of years. He's very tough to play against on this surface. I've never played him on this surface and I was slightly nervous coming into this match. And that reflected on my game in the first set." Djokovic did try to ensure the game does not stay a baseline brawl, which would aid his opponent. Instead, the Serb mixed up his play, chipped-and-charged, served and volleyed -he approached the net 52 times, winning 35 points. But eventually, he knew he would have to put in the hard yards to get the win. "Sometimes I wish I had a serve and volley and nice touch like the gentleman standing there. That would help," Djokovic said lightly, pointing towards eight-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, who watched the game from the Centre Court Royal Box. "But I can't complain. I have to run a lot, it's part of my game." With the match tied at one-set all, both players held on to their own serve until Djokovic got the break at the most opportune moment, when De Minaur was serving at 4-4. The seven-time Wimbledon champion then served out the set at 30. In the fourth set however De Minaur looked the sharper of the two players and raced to a 4-1 lead. It was at that time that, in commentary, that the great John McEnroe announced that Djokovic had a 41-11 fifth set record at Grand Slams. But that's when Djokovic switched gears. He started to add more pace to his groundstrokes and pushed the Australian back and forth across court before finding a winner. From 1-4 down, he won five games on the trot, sealing the match with a heavy forehand down the line that De Minaur chased, but could not get to. He won his first round match playing with a stomach bug. Then came a near-perfect display in the second and third rounds. On Monday, he showed he was ready and able to grind it out. All in pursuit of the elusive Grand Slam No.25. Up next is world No. 24 Flavio Cobolli of Italy....