Novak Djokovic took over three hours but won his opening match

Novak Djokovic had a tough opening match at Wimbledon: the Serbian tennis player defeated China’s Wu Yibing in four sets after more than three hours of play. For the 24-time Grand Slam champion, chasing his eighth title in London, it was a tougher debut than expected thanks to an impressive performance by Wu, who ultimately fell after a hard-fought battle with the final scores of 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

Drawing on his experience, Djokovic took the first set, holding onto the break he earned in the opening game. In the second set, however, the Chinese player took control, breaking the Serb’s serve in the twelfth game. After the break to close the roof, Nole managed, at the end of two extremely tight sets (in which he saved a whopping six break points), to win the match.

The Belgrade champion will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in the next round. “It didn’t feel like a first-round match. He put a lot of pressure on me; today was a real challenge for me.”

Djokovic arrives at this Wimbledon highly motivated, but also aware that he’ll have to contend with fierce competition. The tournament’s top favorite is Jannik Sinner, the defending champion and world No. 1, who kicked off the action on Center Court on Monday, June 29, against Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic. It was the Serbian himself who, before the tournament began, wanted to send a message to the Italian: “When the time comes to step onto Center Court before everyone else, to see the fresh grass as the defending champion, he’ll realize that there’s no other feeling in the world of tennis that can compare. I have no advice to give him, other than to tell him to enjoy the moment because things like this are very rare.”