Djokovic Victorious ©Reuters / T. Melville

Only two mountains now stand in the way of Novak Djokovic and his bid to win his first Wimbledon title.

The Serbian fourth seed overcame Marcos Baghdatis in a marathon five-set match that lasted five hours and set up a semi-final encounter with world number two Rafael Nadal - and then a potential final with the number one Roger Federer, should the Swiss beat Richard Gasquet.

Quite apt then, that Djokovic sang “I will Survive" in a karaoke booth at this year’s Roland Garros as surviving is certainly what he is doing.

Today’s quarter-final was the longest singles match of this year’s championships and his victory against Lleyton Hewitt the day before that was the second longest. Go back one day further and you discover that was the day the Serb finally got round to seeing off Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer in a rain-interrupted match, which spanned three days – an exhausting feat in itself.

Put simply, the Serb has not had a break. Admittedly, at 20 years of age, Djokovic is the youngest player to line up for the men's quarter-finals in this year's tournament. Even so, you have to marvel at his fitness levels.

So what is the secret behind his success? He says the reason he can cope with such a gruelling workload lies in the five-week preparation period he had at the beginning of the season, which included a trip to the west Serbian mountain Zlatibor.

Speaking after the match, Djokovic said: “I had preparation on a mountain the first two-and-a-half weeks and then I went to Monte-Carlo for two-and-a-half weeks. I had really good preparation. I think that is the basic thing which you need to do.

“I think the tennis players are travelling all around the world 11 out of 12 months, so you basically don’t have enough time to prepare and rest. You’ve got to make a really good schedule. In today’s tennis, everybody’s playing. There are a lot of points. You’ve got to think about a lot of things so I think the preparation period is very important.”

The 20-year-old believes the mountain training, coupled with an exhibition tournament and an eight-day stay in Austria, has helped him build stamina and play the best tennis of his life over the past six months.

“As much as work is important, rest is important as well,” he pointed out. “Tennis is a very unique sport. You’ve got to take care of all the body because you’re using every muscle possible on the tennis court.”

So far Djokovic has won three tour titles this year – Adelaide, Estoril and AMS Miami – where he beat Nadal along the way. He also reached the semi-final of Roland Garros before bowing out to eventual winner Nadal.

However, immediately after his Wimbledon quarter-final, the Serbian youngster admitted feeling "exhausted" and "tired". “Basically I have been on the schedule every day. That is not really the encouraging thing for the semi-final."

But Djokovic added that Nadal had been in a similar situation. “Of course he spent much less hours than me on court but he was on the schedule every day as well. He’s physically probably the most prepared player in the world. We all know that. But, you know, I’ll try to do my best and recover.”

While facing the second seed might seem like a tough mountain to climb, you can be sure that the 20-year-old will be getting plenty of Ever-rest tonight in his quest to reach the Wimbledon summit.

Written by Helen Gilbert

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