• Veteran will be 40 during next year’s tournament

• ‘I’m still able to compete at the highest level’

Novak Djokovic has vowed that he will return to Wimbledon next year, when he will be 40, despite a painful straight sets defeat by Jannik Sinner.

Djokovic looked second best in Friday’s semi-final as he succumbed 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to the world No 1. But afterwards he struck a defiant tone as he insisted he had proven over the fortnight that he is still one of the best in the world.

• Novak Djokovic wins 7-6 (10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4)

• Serb lauds ‘one of the best matches in my career’

On Monday night The Odyssey, ­Christopher Nolan’s three-hour epic about one man’s heroic quest, had its world premiere in London. And 24 hours later at Wimbledon, 15,000 fans on Centre Court witnessed a tennis equivalent. A ­rugged hero: Novak Djokovic. A mighty quest: the hunt for a record-breaking 25th grand slam title. There was an injury scare. Multiple shifts in momentum. And ­numerous times where the ­Centre Court crowd stood up and started punching the air at what they were watching.

It amounted to pure box office. And after five hours and 15 ­minutes of extraordinary tennis, it was ­Djokovic who was again left standing after defeating Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6 (10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4).

• Japanese No 14 seed wins 6-2, 7-6 to make quarter-finals

• Sabalenka blasts ball out of Centre Court after losing

Naomi Osaka arrived on Centre Court wearing the outfit that has been the talk of Wimbledon: part Japanese ceremonial dress, part homage to Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill. She was dressed to thrill. But ultimately it was her tennis that spoke loudest of all.

On the other side of the net was Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1 and the biggest slugger in the women’s game.

• Seventh seed digs in to win 7-5, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4)

• ‘It took a bit of luck and skill in the end,’ says Djokovic

In the dying embers of this pulsating match, Novak Djokovic morphed into a young Boris Becker, flying through the air to hit a diving backhand lob volley at match point. At this juncture his opponent, Arthur Rinderknech, was also on the floor after slipping at the net. And Centre Court? All 15,000 of them on their feet. And no wonder. Because this was a first-week mini-classic.

There was little in Rinderknech’s grass court record of 15 wins and 18 defeats to suggest he could put the greatest player in history through the ringer, save for his victory over Alexander Zverev at last year’s Wimbledon. Yet his 6ft 5in frame, booming serve and surprisingly soft hands gave Djokovic all he could handle.

Tommy Paul and world’s best hope to prolong career with therapy, which claims to ‘rejuvenate body, mind and spirit’

Before his straight-sets first-round victory over Alexandre Müller on Monday, the American No 21 seed, Tommy Paul, stepped into the All England Club’s new recovery suite and laid down on a strange zigzag-shaped bed.

At that point, hydrogen gas was pumped through his nostrils and his body experienced multiwave light, pulsed electromagnetic and sound therapy – all from a £128,000 device called the Ammortal Chamber, which claims to be “the fastest way to reset, recharge and rejuvenate the body, mind and spirit”.