LONDON — After all the records Novak Djokovic has broken, the latest one left him rather unimpressed — even though he surpassed his great rival Roger Federer. Djokovic set a men’s record for most match wins at Wimbledon after overcoming a surprisingly tough challenge from 132nd-ranked qualifier Roman Safiullin on Sunday to reach the quarterfinals. The seven-time Wimbledon champion screamed out his frustrations at times — later referring to the outbursts as “meltdowns” — before winning 7-6 (6), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 for his 106th match victory at the All England Club. That puts him one ahead of Federer atop the all-time list for men, although he still trails Martina Navratilova’s 120 match wins.That’s clearly not the record he’s after at Wimbledon, though. Not when he’s also trying to match Federer’s eight titles and become the first man or woman to win 25 major trophies. “Not on my priority list,” Djokovic said. “Didn’t even know about it until after the last match win … That’s really quite insignificant to me at the moment.”The win also put him into the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the 17th time — one behind Federer’s record. But the Serb acknowledged that he will have to raise his game in order to go further.“Survive to thrive, that’s how I feel,” Djokovic said when asked to sum up his first week of the championships. …
