LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – JULY 5: Novak Djokovic of Serbia plays in the Men’s singles fourth round match against Roman Safiullin (not seen) during day seven of The Wimbledon Tennis Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 05, 2026 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Ray Tang/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Anadolu via Getty Images
Another day, another record for Novak Djokovic.
With his 7-6(6), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin, the Serbian legend won his 106th career match at Wimbledon, surpassing the great Roger Federer. Martina Navratilova won 120 singles matches.
Federer won Wimbledon eight times, while Djokovic is bidding to tie him. Djokovic extended his record of 66 Grand Slam quarterfinals.
Djokovic, who is bidding for a record 25th major title, has 100+ wins at three of the four majors. He has 95 career wins at the U.S. Open, and can get to 100 later this summer.
“It fills me with even more respect for Novak,” Andy Roddick said on ESPN. “Listen, he’s clear of the all-time Slams record. he’s chasing ghosts at this point, and he’s still here grinding every single Slam, it’s just crazy.
Safiullin will take home $402. 563 after earning $198,732 in the first six months of 2026 coming into Wimbledon.
In the quarterfinals on Tuesday, Djokovic will next face the winner between No. 3 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Should the Serb get through that round, he could face world No. 1 and defending champion Jannik Sinner in the semis. Sinner leads Djokovic 6-5, but the Serb beat the Italian in the Australian Open semis in January.
“You have to like the chances that we see a Novak and Sinner semifinal,” Roddick said.
The match was far from smooth for Djokovic. He came back from 2-5 down in the opening set to win it in a tiebreak, and then went up two sets to love.
But in the third set he received an audible obscenity warning after he appeared to scream “bulls***” and another word in Serbian, prompting chair umpire Timo Janzen to give him the warning.
After getting broken to fall behind 2-4 in the third, Djokovic attempted to knock a ball back to the ball boy, who was crouched beside the umpire’s chair. But the Serb sent the ball cannoning off the umpire’s seat instead.
It was reminiscent of his shot six years ago at the U.S. Open when he was disqualified for hitting a line judge with a ball.
Djokovic went up a quick break for 3-0 in the fourth set, and closed it out with a serve and volley winner.