Sports · Wimbledon 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 16
Novak DjokovicvsRoman Safiullin
Sunday, July 5, 2026 · Round of 16
Watch: ESPN · ESPN+
My pick: Novak Djokovic to advance · locked 2026-07-03 21:08 UTCPrediction
Djokovic. Safiullin is dangerous because the wins are not flukes anymore; he has beaten Rublev and Fonseca and is hitting through the court. But Djokovic just survived a match where Rinderknech hit 21 aces and 67 winners, which is a useful reminder that he can lose a lot of little metrics and still win the scoreboard. Safiullin can take a set if the first strike lands. Best-of-five still belongs to Djokovic.
The case for Novak Djokovic
78% to winDjokovic’s Rinderknech win was not clean, but it was revealing: he took the first two tight sets and the fourth-set tiebreak despite facing a huge serve day. That is the old Wimbledon equation. Against Safiullin, his return depth and best-of-five problem-solving remain the load-bearing edges.
The case for Roman Safiullin
22% to winSafiullin’s draw path is loud: Rublev, Van de Zandschulp, Fonseca, and only one set dropped across the last two rounds. Against Fonseca he won 105 points to 81 and saved all five break points. If he redlines early, Djokovic cannot coast into baseline control.
Both cases written 2026-07-03, before the first ball — frozen into the record exactly as written, whatever the result. The percentages are mine, quoted to a decimal because false precision is funnier — and tennis has no draw to hide the rounding in.
Tale of the tape
Novak DjokovicRoman SafiullinPlayer vitals: ATP Tour player profiles and Wikipedia (career records) · as of 2026-07-01.
The briefing
Storylines
- Safiullin has already beaten Rublev and Fonseca in this draw.
- Djokovic survived Rinderknech in four sets on Centre Court.
- The winner gets Auger-Aliassime or Davidovich Fokina in the quarter-final.
Watch: US coverage runs on ESPN and ESPN2, and every court streams on ESPN+. The exact linear channel follows the published order of play. (ESPN, as of 2026-07-03)
Court & schedule: Round-of-16 order of play had not yet been posted; this pairing is expected in the Sunday schedule window, with court and exact time to be topped up once the All England Club publishes the order of play. (All England Club order of play (not yet released for the round of 16), as of 2026-07-03)
Venue: All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London — grass.
At this Stage
Safiullin has done enough damage to make the qualifier tag feel silly: Rublev in round one, Van de Zandschulp in round two, Fonseca in straight sets in round three. Djokovic has had the more famous route, if not the smoother one, following Wu and Tsitsipas with a four-set escape from Rinderknech. The winner reaches the quarter-final against Auger-Aliassime or Davidovich Fokina. This is where Safiullin’s clean hitting meets the Djokovic tax: can he win points twice, once with the shot and once when the ball comes back?
Round of 32
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
