Djokovic reaches Wimbledon last 16, equals Federer’s win record

Novak Djokovic kept moving through Wimbledon’s pressure on Tuesday, beating Arthur Rinderknech in four sets to reach the last 16 and match Roger Federer’s men’s singles record of 105 wins at the tournament. The No. 7 seed, who is 39 and a seven-time champion at SW19, did it after another long test that stretched well beyond straight-line power and into recovery, patience and nerve.

Djokovic won 7-5, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4) after opening his 2026 campaign with a four-set victory over Yibing Wu and then dismissing Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets. That sequence has taken him into the second week of his 21st Wimbledon campaign, a run that continues to bend the usual expectations around age in men’s tennis. Before this year, Djokovic’s Wimbledon record stood at 102-13, built across titles in 2011, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022.

The third-round match against Rinderknech laid out the gap between biological expectation and competitive reality as clearly as any of Djokovic’s recent performances. He dropped the third set, had to survive the fourth in a tie-break and admitted afterward that he needed “a bit of luck” and “a flawless tie-break” to get through. Wimbledon described the contest as long, exhausting and nerve-racking, and that is exactly the sort of match Djokovic has turned into a habit of winning deep into his thirties, when younger rivals often fade earlier in the same conditions.

That endurance is part physical and part tactical. Djokovic has managed his schedule selectively in recent seasons to stay fresh for Grand Slams, and Wimbledon has remained the stage where that approach pays the largest dividend. The tournament’s speed, the grass, the scoreboard swings and the pressure of five-set tennis all reward an athlete who can adapt patterns mid-match, reset after lost sets and keep the body functional through repeated recovery cycles.

The numbers around him remain stark. Djokovic now owns 24 Grand Slam singles titles, the most in the Open Era, and he remains the standard-bearer of a generation defined by his rivalry with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. At Wimbledon, where his career began in 2005, he has now matched Federer’s singles win total and moved another step toward an eighth title, a target that would extend one of the sport’s most demanding careers even further.