Alex de Minaur made a surprising start in his fourth round match at Wimbledon against Novak Djokovic.
De Minaur was supposed to play Djokovic at Wimbledon last year in the quarter-finals, but was forced to withdraw from the match due to a hip injury.
Despite leading the head-to-head against the Australian, Djokovic admitted he was wary of De Minaur and the threat that he would pose in their match.
This threat became very much apparent in the opening set of their first round match, as something happened to Djokovic for the first ever time at Wimbledon.
Alex de Minaur makes history against Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon
Djokovic is one of the big Wimbledon favourites this year alongside Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, as he seeks a record 25th Grand Slam title.
However, with the match being watched on by his former rival Roger Federer, Djokovic’s title bid was put in doubt after De Minaur dominated the first set on Centre Court, taking it 6-1 in just 30 minutes.
Not only was this a surprising scoreline, it was also the first time that Djokovic had lost the opening set of any match at Wimbledon either 6-1 or 6-0.
Djokovic had lost five previous 6-1 sets at Wimbledon before, but none of them came in the opening set of the match.
John McEnroe gives his verdict on Novak Djokovic’s performance in the first set against Alex de Minaur
It was a very uncharacteristic first set performance from Djokovic, who hit 16 unforced errors and four double faults.
The Serbian managed to get only 48% of his first serves in during the set, and won just 18% of his points on second serve.
Seven-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe, who is on commentary for the BBC, made a strong claim about how bad the performance was from Djokovic.
“I can’t remember the last time I saw him play a worse set than this,” said McEnroe. “It has literally been years.”
If Djokovic fights back to beat De Minaur then it will be the first time that a match between the pair is not won in straight sets.
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