Djokovic draws level with Federer at 105 Wimbledon wins as Rinderknech push goes the distance

Novak Djokovic moved level with Roger Federer at the summit of men's singles victories at Wimbledon on 3 July 2026, defeating France's Arthur Rinderknech 7-5, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4) on Centre Court to claim his 105th match win at the All England Club and reach the fourth round. The seventh seed dropped the third set and was pushed to a fourth-set tie-break before closing out a contest that lasted just over three hours and showcased the full range of his grass-court game: serve-and-volley forays, sliding retrieves and, in the final moments of the tie-break, a leaping half-volley at the net that prompted the Serbian to quip afterwards, "It took a bit of luck and skill in the end."

Federer's 105 wins had stood since the Swiss great's final appearance at SW19 in 2021; Djokovic has now matched it in his 17th consecutive Wimbledon main draw, a run that began before Federer had retired. The milestone carries particular weight because the record had become the cleanest shorthand for the breadth of the Swiss career — singles titles at the All England Club, plus 105 match wins across a decade and a half of grass-court excellence — and Djokovic's arrival alongside it tightens the numbers behind a rivalry that will be replayed in the record books for years.

A fourth round that never settled

The match refused to take its expected shape. Djokovic, the heavier favourite against a Frenchman ranked outside the world's top 25, broke early in the opening set and again in the second, only for Rinderknech to reset at the changeover and start swinging freely in the third. The Frenchman took the third set 6-1 with a run of clean groundstrokes and a serve that began to pull Djokovic wide of the baseline. The fourth went with serve until 6-6, and the tie-break turned on a single Djokovic forehand pass that clipped the baseline and a Rinderknech double fault at 4-5 that handed the Serbian two match points.

ESPN's reporting noted the late-match athleticism — the airborne volley that drew the loudest response of the afternoon — and the way Djokovic blended old-school grass-court instincts with the more modern baseline patterns that have defined the back end of his career. The win means Djokovic is the first man to reach the last 16 at this year's Championships and the first to equal Federer's 105 victories on the men's side; Martina Navratilova remains the outright leader of the all-time list at 120 women's singles wins.

The women's record sits in a different league

Federer's mark was long considered the practical ceiling because of how the men's draw has changed since 2003: deeper fields, longer matches, faster courts. The 38-year-old Djokovic has answered the depth-of-field question simply by staying intact through the era. Navratilova's 120 wins, set across a 19-year Wimbledon career between 1978 and 2004, remains a target that Djokovic's current trajectory would require at least three more All England Club seasons to approach — and he has given no public indication that he intends to chase it. The 25th major, which he is still pursuing, is the more immediate number.

What the next week asks of him

The fourth round on Monday 6 July will be Djokovic's 18th career appearance at that stage at Wimbledon, and his 105th win lifts him within reach of the all-time men's record of 120 match victories — held jointly, in practical terms, by Federer at the moment Djokovic equalled him and by the late Björn Borg at the top of the pre-Open-era adjusted list. None of that will matter to Djokovic this week if he does not negotiate his fourth-round opponent and a probable quarter-final against one of the younger seeds. The Centre Court crowd on Thursday sensed as much: the standing ovation at the end was for the record, but the real cheer, after the final point, was for what the Serb might still do with it.

The sources do not specify Djokovic's next opponent or whether any of the four remaining top-eight seeds in his section have publicly addressed the 105-win milestone; the tournament draw published after the third round places him in the lower half of the bracket alongside the winner of Friday's match between the Italian 12th seed and a qualifier.

Desk note: Monexus led with the milestone, then the match itself, then the structural record context — keeping the centre of gravity on what Djokovic did on Thursday rather than on a forward-looking debate about his place in the all-time list. Wire copy (ESPN, BBC Sport) carried the headline number and the four-set scoreline; this piece adds the Federer-as-clean-shorthand frame and the Navratilova-vs-105 contextual comparison that the wires left implicit.