Novak Djokovic wins in five-hour thriller to advance to Wimbledon semifinals

LONDON — Novak Djokovic was pushed to play more than five hours by Felix Auger-Aliassime before the seven-time Wimbledon champion prevailed 7-6 (10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4) on Tuesday to set up a semifinal against defending champion Jannik Sinner.When a forehand from Auger-Aliassime sailed wide after a long rally to give Djokovic a 9-4 lead in the final-set tiebreaker, both players leaned on their rackets in exhaustion.Djokovic, while he was leaning over, still found energy to encourage the crowd to cheer louder, waving his racket for more noise.Then on his first match point, a big forehand from Djokovic led to another error from his 25-year-old Canadian opponent to end it after 5 hours, 15 minutes — and just before the All England Club’s 11 p.m.

curfew took effect.To celebrate, Djokovic raised his arms high and wide and took in the applause as he walked to the net to shake hands with Auger-Aliassime.Then Djokovic performed a little elbows-to-knees dance.

He often mentions that his daughter tries to teach him moves.“These,” Djokovic said, “are the kind of moments that I still play tennis for.”Djokovic continues to break records as he chases a 25th Grand Slam title.He’s reached a record-setting eighth consecutive Wimbledon final four — moving him one ahead of Roger Federer for most consecutive men’s singles semifinal appearances at the grass-court tournament.Sinner beat Jan-Lennard Struff 7-5, 7-6 (4), 6-3.Sinner beat Djokovic in straight sets in last year’s Wimbledon semifinals; and Djokovic outlasted the Italian over five sets in the last four of this year’s Australian Open.“I wish it was finals, so I don’t need to worry about how the body will feel tomorrow,” said Djokovic, who will face Sinner on Thursday.“I was telling the kids to go to sleep after the fourth (set) but they didn’t want to listen.

I’m glad they stayed because it was honestly one of the best matches I was part of on this court in my career.”In the first...