By Shrivathsa Sridhar
LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) – Novak Djokovic added another chapter to his Wimbledon legacy on Sunday as the Serb fought past Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin 7-6(6) 6-3 3-6 6-3 to earn a record 106th match victory at the All England Club and reach another quarter-final.
It was far from smooth sailing for the seventh seed under the blazing sun on Centre Court, as he twice dropped serve with uncharacteristic mistakes, before saving two set points at 2-5 down to win the first set in a fiercely-contested tiebreak.
World number 132 Safiullin, eyeing a major upset after months out with a hip injury, continued to test Djokovic but crashed his backhand into the net to fall behind 2-4 in the second set.
Having found the opening, Djokovic quickly doubled his lead in the match with some exquisite serve-and-volley tennis, before his frustrations boiled over when Safiullin broke and snatched the third set to extend his adventure.
After a tight hold to start the fourth set, Djokovic took his level up a notch to complete the win and set up a quarter-final clash with either third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime or Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in London, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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