Novak Djokovic reaches 14th Wimbledon semifinal, breaks Roger Federer’s all-time record

There aren’t a lot of records left for Novak Djokovic to break, but he just found another one.

With a 6-7 (6), 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Italy’s Flavio Cobolli in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon on Wednesday, Djokovic moved through to the 14th Wimbledon semifinal of his career, breaking the record for most men’s semifinal appearances in Wimbledon history.

He and Roger Federer were tied at 13 before his latest victory.

MOST WIMBLEDON MEN'S SEMIFINAL APPEARANCES (all-time):

• 14: Novak Djokovic [2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025]
• 13: Roger Federer [2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019]
• 11: Jimmy Connors [1974, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987]

Djokovic is also through to the 52nd overall Grand Slam semifinal of his career, but that’s not a new record—he broke that record two years ago. Federer has the next-most of those with 46, followed by Rafael Nadal with 38.

Djokovic had beaten Cobolli for the loss of just three games, 6-1, 6-2, in their only previous encounter at the Masters 1000 event in Shanghai last fall, but the Italian is a much different player now—not only has he captured the first two ATP titles of his career this year, but by reaching his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Wimbledon, he'll be a Top 20 player when the new ATP rankings are released next Monday.

And he pushed Djokovic much closer this time over the course of three hours and 11 minutes on Centre Court, but it wasn't to be in the end, as he missed a crucial volley to drop serve at 4-all in the fourth set, after which Djokovic served it out.

"First I have to say huge congratulations to Flavio for an amazing tournament and also a great battle today," Djokovic said afterwards. "It was a great performance from him. I saw him play here and I knew he was playing well. He was on a really high level.

"He's definitely one of the guys we'll be seeing in the future much more."

Djokovic has now won 20 of his last 21 Grand Slam quarterfinal matches as well, a run that dates back to 2018, and it was also the milestone 1,050th tour-level win of his career.

Awaiting the seven-time Wimbledon champion in the semifinals this year will be Jannik Sinner, who advanced past Ben Shelton on No. 1 Court, 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4

Sinner leads the pair's head-to-head, 5-4, including winning their last four meetings in a row. But there's one asterisk—Djokovic has won both of the pair's career meetings on grass, and both at Wimbledon. He came back from two sets down to prevail in the 2022 quarterfinals, 5-7, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, and then in straight sets in the 2023 semifinals, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4).

The men's semifinals will take place on Friday.