“Mentally, I think you have to accept that I entered the match knowing that I will probably feel pain to the end, which was the case,” Djokovic told reporters after the victory. “But the level of pain was bearable, so I was able to actually play and it was a way to continue and stop for a while during the match.
“But I somehow managed to find a way and win and that matters the most. Now I have another 40 hours or so until the next match, which is great in terms of the big slams.
“The medical team told me it’s a gamble while I’m on the field. It could cause a lot more damage, but it could go in the right direction. I won’t know until I stop taking painkillers. which is really happening. I’ll take my time off then. “
Roger Federer is the only man to have previously reached the record of 300 Grand Slam victories, sitting ahead of 362. Rafael Nadal is third on 285.
It is the 12th time in the last 14 years that Djokovic has reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and the next eight-time champion is the German Alex Zverev.
The third seed, Dominic Thiem, lost on Friday by surprise, coming down with a whimper in straight sets to Grigor Dimitrov. The Austrian, who won his first Grand Slam title at last year’s US Open, fought two sets on Friday against home favorite Nick Kyrgios on Friday, but it looked like the five-set epic would have drained him physically and mentally.
Dimitrov will play Russian Aslan Karatsev, a surprise quarterfinalist, for a place in the last four.