Novak Djokovic brought up his century of wins on grass on tour to book his place in a 10thWimbledon semi-final on Wednesday.
In a career already laden with numbers, it is his 41st time in the last four of a Grand Slam, his 315th win at a Slam and, most crucially, ensured he remains on for that record-equalling 20th Slam.
It was not quite vintage Djokovic against Marton Fucsovics – he racked up 30 unforced errors – nor did it need to be for a 6-3 6-4 6-4 victory.
The world No1 began the match as though trying to get play on Centre Court finished in plenty of time for spectators to vacate for England’s Euros match against Denmark.
He raced into a 5-0 lead against Fucsovics, who had never been this far before at a major and was the first player from Hungary to reach this point at Wimbledon since the 1950s.
With the danger of a bagel looming, the 29-year-old finally found his rhythm, winning three games in a row, including a break of the Djokovic serve as the Serbian became a little too passive.
All it did was delay the outcome of the first set but that passiveness also permeated the second set giving Fuscovics renewed hope.
He said before the match, “I will be famous in Hungary now” and he increasingly did himself and his country proud as he put pressure on the Djokovic serve.
Wimbledon Tennis Championships 2021
A player self-labelled the fittest on tour had a chance to break for a 5-4 lead but he couldn’t convert and, seemingly within a matter of moments, Djokovic had taken the set. Pumped up, he bounced back to his seat while his opponent looked forlorn.
As the match dragged on, Djokovic looked the fresher and not surprisingly. He had spent the least time of the players in the quarter-finals on court while Fucsovics had spent the most. And all it took in set three was for a single break to wrap up the match.
Assessing his performance, he said: “I think it was a solid performance. I started really well. One break of serve in the second and third set were enough to clinch the victory today. Credit to Marton for hanging in there.”
Djokovic will now meet Canadian No10 seed Denis Shapovalov in the semi-finals after he came through a tight five-setter 6-4 3-6 5-7 6-1 6-4 over Russia’s Karen Khachanov.
