Belgian David Goffin edged American 23rd seed Frances Tiafoe in a five-set thriller on Sunday to match his 2019 quarter-final appearance at Wimbledon when he last played in the Grand Slam.
The longest match of Wimbledon 2022 .David Goffin outlasts Frances Tiafoe in a marathon on No.2 Court, defeating the American in four hours and 36 minutes.
The longest match of #Wimbledon 2022 🕒
David Goffin outlasts Frances Tiafoe in a marathon on No.2 Court, defeating the American in four hours and 36 minutes pic.twitter.com/kPMUyBXBI5
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 3, 2022
The former world number seven fell to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in 2019 but after a injury-hit last season on Tour has returned to the last eight stage again to match his best performance at the majors.
Now ranked 58th, Goffin will next meet local hope Cameron Norrie for a place in Friday’s semi-finals after holding his nerve to outlast Tiafoe 7-6(3) 5-7 5-7 6-4 7-5 in an absorbing contest on court one that lasted four hours 36 minutes.
“It means a lot. For me, it’s almost like a back-to-back quarter-finals because I didn’t play last year,” the 31-year-old Goffin told reporters.
“I was very excited to come back here because it’s a very important tournament for me, because it’s probably my favourite tournament of the year, place that I love, surface that I can play really well. I had some great results on that surface.”
“It’s always tough when you played almost four hours already and you have to play a fifth set. It’s not easy,” Goffin said.
“At the end I took my chance. I was aggressive with the return. Very happy to win that one. It was a tough one, very tough one.”
A quarter-final match-up against Briton Norrie, who also beat an American in Tommy Paul but in straight sets, would mean Goffin in all probability will be put on Centre Court next.
“I have another opportunity to play on Centre Court to try to have a win, finally to have a win on Centre Court,” he said, while praising Norrie’s consistency throughout the tournament.
“But I will try to recover. That’s the most important now, today and tomorrow, try to be ready to play against the whole country.”
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