Wu Yibing Vs Novak Djokovic Highlights, Wimbledon 2026: Ageless Djokovic Survives Wu's Challenge To Reach Round Two

This is the first meeting between the two players.

Here comes Novak … A blazer-donning Djokovic walks out on to Centre Court, still pretty full after Aryna Sabalenka’s match, with China’s Wu Yibing. The roof is open for now. This should be fun.

Wu fails to get a grip in Djokovic's serve, failed to get a foothold.

Wu brings some ‘oohs’ from the crowd with a superb forehand that Djokovic can’t reach in the corner, with the Serbian also acknowledging the quality of the shot. The Chinese player then goes very wayward hitting to the other side and gifts Djokovic two game points. He takes the first.

Wu sees out a service game with a very confident couple of forehands stepping in from the baseline. He’s got some power.

Djokovic goes 15-0 up on his serve but is sent wide by Wu. The 39-year-old gets the ball back well but opts not to chase the return, saving his legs a bit. He doesn’t need to exert much energy as he wins the rest of his points to hold.

Wu goes 30-0 up with a fizzing forehand, prompting a comment of “Too good” from Djokovic on the other side of the net. A double fault doesn’t put the Chinese off and he sends an ace out wide to make Djokovic work for the first set.

A slip from the Serbian at 30-30 draws gasps from the crowd – he was wrongfooted on another powerful return from Wu, who has been growing into this one. Djokovic gets it back to deuce more than once, forces an error on the Wu return and then closes out the game and the first set.

Staying true to the all-or-nothing ethos, Wu Yibing digs out an ace to lead 40-0.

Wu, on the back foot, whips winner into the corner to hold. He's guaranteed at least a tie-break now.

Wu Yibing gets it!

Novak Djokovic sends long and we're all square.

Who saw this coming?

Darkness is closing in and the temperature is going down, so the Centre Court roof will be closed at the end of this second set.

Closing the roof takes around 10 minutes and the players will be offered a three-minute warm-up for the change in conditions.

Wu Yibing is ranked 102 in the world. He has never reached any higher than 54 but he's showing consistency of a player much further up those rankings.

Who knows how high he might have climbed if injuries had not kept him off the court throughout the majority of 2024 and 2025.

Now it's Novak Djokovic's turn to ramp up the aggression. The Serb edges up to the net and leaves Wu Yibing with no space to play.

Back to deuce they go.

Djokovic gets a third look at set point and celebrates in very strange fashion - it looks like he maybe tried to head a very loose ball?

Novak Djokovic comes through the longest game of the match to finally wrap up the set.

How much has that taken out of the 39-year-old's gas tank?

Wu 4-6 7-5 4-6 Djokovic

Sumptuous striking from Wu Yibing - a blistering down-the-line forehand for 40-0. Novak Djokovic, who didn't move, applauds on his strings.

Ace. 15-0.

Poor Wu Yibing. He recovers once, twice, puts in a dive as Novak Djokovic drives him into the corner of the court but has no chance of getting up the court to recover a drop shot. 30-0.

A roar. 40-0.

What more can we expect from the 39-year old.

Love him or hate him he truly deserves respect, the way he relentlessly challenged Wu the whole time and kept him on his toes. Hats Off!

He was second best for much of the fourth set, but every time Wu Yibing looked to have his nose in front, Djokovic yanked him back.

Djokovic only had one break point in the fourth set and he converted it. Wu had six but couldn't capitalise.

Remarkably, Novak Djokovic has now won all 21 of his first-round matches at Wimbledon, extending his flawless opening-round record at the All England Club.

That's a wrap! See you'll soon for another Live Blog. Until then Bye-bye!

• Men's top seed and defending champion Jannik Sinner survived a scare on Centre Court, coming from behind to beat Miomir Kecmanovic in five sets.

• Aryna Sabalenka had no such struggles, beating Teodora Kostovic 6-2 6-3.

• Novak Djokovic came through a thrilling battle with Wu Yibing in four sets.

• It was a disappointing day for the Brits with 10 players, including British number one Cameron Norrie, falling in round one.

• Casper Ruud (11th seed) and Andrey Rublev (12th) were the biggest names to fall in the men's draw while former finalist Marin Cilic bowed out in straight sets to Daniil Medvedev.

• Top-10 seeds Jessica Pegula, Mirra Andreeva, Coco Gauff, and Karolina Muchova joined Sabalenka in round two with straight-sets wins.