And just like that, Novak Djokovic added another milestone to his remarkable resume. His 7-6(6), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Roman Safiullin marked his 106th career Wimbledon match win, moving him past Roger Federer for the most victories in tournament history. But while the Serbian celebrated the record, he also took a moment to apologize for his behavior during the match.

At one stage of the match, Novak Djokovic received a code violation for an audible obscenity after being broken to trail 2-4 in the third set.

Speaking after the match, the Serbian reflected on that moment and explained how maintaining focus has been one of the defining traits of his career. “And the outbursts as well,” he said, before elaborating further. “The outbursts. You know, the meltdowns. I had a few of those today as well. I apologise.”

His on-court stats helped to justify the scrappier quality of the victory, as the Serbian picked up 10 aces and committed 37 unforced errors in four sets, edging Safiullin 124 points to 114 across the four sets.

The victory continued a streak of nine Wimbledon quarter-finals and 17 overall. This is part of a larger Grand Slam record, showing Djokovic reaching the quarterfinals in 79.5% of his major tournament appearances, a record for the Open Era. He now awaits the winner between third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, with a potential semi-final meeting against defending champion Jannik Sinner looming beyond that.