Novak Djokovic cut a frustrated figure following his agonising defeat to Dominic Thiem, having blown a 4-1 lead in the deciding set tiebreak.
The second seed was heavily fancied to beat the Austrian world No. 5 but Thiem played one of the best matches of his career to come through a three-set thriller 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 7-6 (7-5) after two hours and 47 minutes.
Djokovic acknowledged Thiem’s level was extraordinarily high and admitted it was an unusual match for the relentless manner in which Thiem kept ‘just literally smacking the ball as hard as he can’.
‘I thought he deserved to win,’ Djokovic said. ‘He just played very courageous tennis and just smacking the ball. He went for broke.
‘I mean, the entire match he played same way he played the last point. I mean, I have to put my hat down and congratulate him, because he just played a great match.
‘No, I mean, it’s hard to judge by today’s match. I mean, I don’t think I have experienced too many matches like this where my opponent just goes for every single shot.
‘I mean, he was unbelievable, and in some stages it was just incredible that he was just literally smacking the ball as hard as he can and he was going in.
‘It’s really hard to say – I mean, of course his level was super high. This today was unbelievable. But whether he can keep that up, you know, every match, if he does, chapeau, you know. There is not much you can say. For sure, he’s playing great tennis.
‘It was amazing. I have played him before. I know his game. But what he did tonight was just out of ordinary, so to say.
‘I mean, I know that he can play in a high level, but tonight was just phenomenal. I mean, I had to fight, and I did. I’m proud of coming back from, you know, 5-6 down. He was serving for the match.
‘I had the tiebreak. I mean, I was 3-Love, serve, 4-1 up, 5-4, you know, maybe should have played a little more aggressive in those moments, but credit to him.’
Djokovic was in no mood to hang around and he had little to say on what is now essentially a regular quarter-final meeting with Federer.
‘It’s a round robin system, so I’m still in the tournament,’ he added. ‘We go head to head with Roger. Winner goes to semis. Loser doesn’t qualify. As simple as that.’
On whether their Wimbledon final meeting would have any bearing on this latest contest, he simply said: ‘Doesn’t really matter.’
