Novak Djokovic, in pursuit of eighth Wimbledon title, advances to quarterfinals

Novak Djokovic rebounded from a set down to defeat Australian Alex de Minaur 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 and advance to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon on Monday.

The No. 6-seeded Serbian counts seven wins at Wimbledon among his 24 Grand Slam victories. He is seeking to join Roger Federer, who watched the match from the Royal Box, as the only men with eight singles titles on the grass court in London.

In his post-match interview, the 38-year-old Djokovic admitted to being nervous ahead of the three-hour, 18-minute match, and it showed in the opening set. He double faulted four times and was broken on serve three times, while registering only eight winners against 16 unforced errors.

But de Minaur, the 26-year-old Australian and No. 11 seed, couldn't capitalize on two big chances he had in subsequent sets.

In the second, with Djokovic serving up 5-4, de Minaur had two break points but couldn't convert and lost the set. In the fourth, he took a 4-1 lead but allowed Djokovic to rattle off five consecutive games.

"I am still trying to process the whole match and what happened on court," Djokovic said. "It wasn't a great start for me; it was a great start for him. He broke my serve three times in the first set. Very windy, swirly conditions on the court. He was just managing better with the play from the back of the court.

"I didn't have many solutions but I managed to reset myself. It was kind of a tough game to close out the second set. Perhaps that was a momentum shift where I just felt like 'OK, I am back in the game.' It was a lot of cat-and-mouse play, a lot of slices and he is so good at it."

It was the 101st win at Wimbledon for Djokovic, who trails only Federer (105) in wins.

He acknowledged Federer in the crowd in his post-match remarks and said he wish he had some of the tools of the Swiss great.

"It was a very difficult encounter, some very challenging moments for me. Sometimes, I wish I had a serve and volley and a nice touch from the gentleman who is standing right there, that would help," Djokovic said.

Up next for Djokovic is No. 22 seed Flavio Cobelli of Italy, who reached his first Wimbledon quarters by defeating Serbian Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3). The match lasted nearly 3 1/2 hours.

Cilic had 19 aces but was undone by 64 unforced errors.