[Source: Reuters]

Defending champion Novak Djokovic was temporarily knocked off course by big-serving Pole Hubert Hurkacz but quickly got back in the groove on Monday to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals.

Having edged two tight tiebreaks late on Sunday before being beaten by the tournament’s strict 11pm curfew, the 36-year-old returned hoping for a quick completion of the match.

Instead, he dropped his first set of the tournament before recalibrating and sealing a 7-6(6) 7-6(6) 5-7 6-4 victory.

His 100th match at Wimbledon was not vintage Djokovic but as he almost always does the second seed found a way through the storm to preserve his 10-year unbeaten record on Centre Court.

He has now moved equal in second place with Jimmy Connors for Wimbledon quarter-finals reached and will face Russia’s seventh seed Andrey Rublev in his 14th on Tuesday.

Remarkably the Serbian has now reached 56 Grand Slam quarters-finals, second behind only Roger Federer.

It was Hurkacz who brought down the curtain on record eight-time Wimbledon champion Federer’s career when he beat the Swiss in the last eight two years ago.

The 26-year-old’s destructive game could easily have done for Djokovic too as he bombed down eight more aces to go with the 23 he belted past the Serb on Sunday night, one of them clocked at 141mph.

“He put up a great performance,” a relieved Djokovic said on court after keeping his bid for a fifth successive Wimbledon title and eighth in all, said on court.