By Shrivathsa Sridhar
LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) – Novak Djokovic said he was relieved to have ground down Roman Safiullin and charge into the Wimbledon quarter-finals on Sunday but the perfectionist in him did not enjoy the “ugly” win on Centre Court.
The Serb saved set points and then won a tight opening set via a tiebreak in a little over an hour before eventually seeing off his 132nd-ranked opponent in four sets on a blazing day at the All England Club.
“To be honest, I haven’t felt really great on the court, so I was relieved to get out of it and get a win,” Djokovic said in his press conference.
“Satisfaction and enjoyment weren’t part of today’s win. Of course, I’m relieved and happy to win it, but I haven’t enjoyed it. Hopefully the next match will be better in that sense.”
Djokovic said the constant pressure from Russian qualifier Safiullin had also contributed to him not enjoying the outing.
“I struggled to find the game, the desired level I’m looking for, that I had, I think, in the second round … but a win is a win, even if you win ugly. Hopefully I can build from this,” the seventh seed added.
“I’ve been fortunate to play many matches on the highest stage of Grand Slams. My memory is not really good these days. I’m trying to think about which Grand Slams I had similar experience and then ended up winning.
“There’s been more than few where you go through a difficult match or two at least on your path to win a championship. I’m a perfectionist at the core. I always want the best game, the best performance for myself and for others and for the crowd.
“It’s not always possible, and sometimes it’s hard for me to accept that and deal with it.”
WIMBLEDON MATCH-WIN RECORD ‘NOT A PRIORITY’
A 106th match victory at Wimbledon helped Djokovic surpass Roger Federer in the men’s all-time match-wins list but the 39-year-old said achieving that feat had not been high on his list of priorities.
“I haven’t thought about it. I didn’t even know about it until after the last match win,” Djokovic said.
“That’s really quite insignificant to me at the moment.”
Faced with a clash against third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime or Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina next, Djokovic said his main goal was to recover well before that clash.
“The amount of time I spend recovering nowadays is more than I’ve ever done. It’s just the demands of the body nowadays. More wear and tear,” he added.
“I can’t say I always enjoy it. It takes away a lot of the time. But it’s a part of the process and adjustment to the body changes in the late years, the last several years.
“But throughout my career, I always try to look to what can give me an edge, what’s the best recovery, wellness technology – from hyperbaric chambers, to cryo chambers, to cold immersions, to red light therapy to pulse electromagnetic therapies.
“There’s a lot of things that I’ve used and I’ve been using and still using.”
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in London, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
