Anja Niedringhaus
A subdued Novak Djokovic used all his experience to win a game of cat-and-mouse with Bernard Tomic and reach his third Wimbledon semi-final on Wednesday.
The Serbian second seed looked out-of-sorts as he ended the dream run of the 18-year-old Australian qualifier with a 6-2 3-6 6-3 7-5 victory.
"He was not making many unforced errors from the baseline which made my life very difficult. I was trying to change the pace, but he was better at that and it was like a game of cat and mouse," Djokovic told reporters.
Djokovic has only lost one match all year and is threatening to take over the world number one ranking from Rafa Nadal, but he looked uncomfortable at times against his regular hitting partner.
"I'm okay, I'm okay" he said. "I had to work hard for my points. In some periods of the match I was not feeling great, meaning I wasn't moving well. Then I was expending a lot of energy on those rallies.
"But to go through to another semi-final is the important thing. I'm delighted."
Djokovic, bidding for his first Wimbledon title, cruised through the opening set after breaking in the first game of the match.
Tomic grew in confidence, though, and using his patient and delicate groundstrokes to frustrate the Serb, he took the second set and opened up a 3-1 lead in the third.
Djokovic struggled to deal with the low, slow sliced backhands of Tomic but he suddenly lifted the tempo and reeled off seven games in a row to take command.
Tomic, the youngest man to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals since Boris Becker in 1986, made a string of basic errors but out of the blue he hit back in the fourth set, whipping a ferocious forehand down the line to seal another break.
Djokovic fell heavily at 4-5 and struggled to hold his serve but an exquisite drop shot in the next game set up the crucial break.
The 24-year-old Serb rediscovered his consistency and earned himself two match points in the next game, the first of which he converted when Tomic netted a groundstroke.
"I'm proud of myself firstly," Tomic said. "What a player Novak is. I think I gave it as much as I could today. I was not too far off, but he's a better player than me at this stage."
Djokovic said Tomic was an opponent who had nothing to lose.
"He was hitting a lot of winners and I couldn't predict where he was going," Djokovic added.
"That's the reason why I have to congratulate him on a great tournament and give him credit for the performance today."