Djokovic ties Federer's record at 39. What's your excuse for not playing?

Friday 3 July, day 5 of Wimbledon 2026: Novak Djokovic outlasts Arthur Rinderknech over three-plus hours (7-5, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6) to reach 105 wins at the tournament, tying Roger Federer's all-time men's record. A few hours later Jannik Sinner closes out Jenson Brooksby in two hours and fifteen minutes (6-4, 6-3, 6-4, 13 aces) and moves into the last 16.

Two very different matches (age, style, scoreline), but they tell the same story to anyone who plays tennis on an ordinary court on Saturday morning, not at the All England Club.

39 years old, still chasing records

Djokovic is 39. He won the first set 7-5, the second 6-4, then got pegged back an entire set (1-6) before closing it out in a fourth-set tie-break. Not an easy afternoon — over three hours against an opponent whose serve gives nothing away. That win takes him to 105 Wimbledon victories, as many as Federer in the tournament's history — only Martina Navratilova, among all players, has more (120). In the next round, against qualifier Roman Safiullin, Djokovic can take the record outright.

The point is not the elite tennis itself — it's that at 39 you can still be in contention for a record nobody thought reachable two decades ago. If you quit tennis at 35 thinking "it's too late now," this weekend is a good moment to revisit that idea.

Ranking doesn't play the match

The less-told story of the day is elsewhere: Daniil Medvedev went out to Jan-Lennart Struff, world number 74. And Rafael Jodar was eliminated by Shintaro Mochizuki, a Japanese qualifier ranked 151. He now meets Sinner himself in the fourth round.

On paper, in both cases, the form line said the opposite of what happened. It happens almost every day of a Slam: a player ranked ten, fifty, a hundred spots lower finds the right day and wins.

The same holds off the tour. The level someone states on a profile, the "I've been playing three years" or the "I'm not very good" someone tells you before stepping on court — none of it says much about how that specific match will actually go. Ranking — real or perceived — does not play for you. Too many people sit out a match for fear of a mismatch that, statistically, is far less likely than it feels.

Sinner, the job done right

Sinner-Brooksby was the least spectacular match of the day, and precisely for that reason the most instructive. Sinner found his first break in the seventh game of the first set (the first time this tournament he has needed that long to break through), then never really let the match slip, closing it out in straight sets with 13 aces.

No twist, no dramatic comeback. Just a steady level held for two hours and fifteen minutes, against an opponent who still played a good match. The habit — show up, play your level, repeat — beats the one-off flash of brilliance almost every time. True at the Championships, true on the court behind your house too.

What this has to do with your Saturday match

Every Slam produces two weeks where the urge to get back on court rises. We covered that when Wimbledon started. What day 5 adds is a practical detail: age and stated level matter less than you'd think, both for staying competitive and for deciding whether to accept a match.

If the problem is finding someone (at your real level, free when you are, not a stranger picked at random from a WhatsApp group), on PlaySportMate level is a profile field, not a guess. Create a free account, set tennis, your level and your area, and see who is available near you. If you want something more structured, check out the amateur tournaments open in your city.

PSM is not a tennis-only app, it covers 150+ sports. But if these days brought back the urge to pick up a racket, the mechanism is identical: state who you are, find who matches you, play.

If this tournament sparked the urge for other sports too, read how the Roland Garros has the same effect every spring. A major event, the urge to get back on court, the same problem to solve: finding someone.

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