In one of the most fascinating matches of the 2026 tennis season, Novak Djokovic, the 24-time grand slam tennis champion, defeated Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 in the quarterfinals. Djokovic defeated Auger-Aliassime 10-4 in a fifth set tiebreak.
What we saw from Djokovic, the 39-year-old native of Belgrade, was continued excellence at a time when most high performance tennis players simply do not continue playing the sport. Besides dealing with a lower leg ailment early in the match, Djokovic looked marvelous in long rallies. He ended up winning his longest match ever at Wimbledon. The match lasted five hours and 15 minutes, and ended eight minutes before the match would have been delayed a day due to the mandatory Wimbledon curfew. This was also the longest quarterfinal matchup in Wimbledon history.
This is actually the second time in Djokovic’s career, he won a Wimbledon match that lasted five hours and 15 minutes. The first was the 2018 Wimbledon final, which Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal of Spain, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 3-6, 10-8 in the Wimbledon semifinals. The longest match Djokovic has ever played was the 2012 Australian Open final. Djokovic once again defeated Nadal in five sets, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5 in five hours and 53 minutes.
In Djokovic’s win over Auger-Aliassime, Djokovic generated significant momentum after the first set tiebreak. It was a tiebreak that could have gone either way, but Djokovic won 12-10. A key statistic was winning percentage on second serve points. Djokovic was at 73% and Auger-Aliassime was at 47%. With the win, Djokovic set the Wimbledon record with eight consecutive semifinal appearances, and extended his record with most men’s singles wins at Wimbledon all-time (107).
