Novak Djokovic offered a glimpse into his true character when he supported Alex De Minaur after the Australian was forced to withdrawfrom their quarter-final clash at Wimbledon last year. The Serbian has been drawn to face the 11th seed in the Round of 16 at SW19 this time round.

They were supposed to battle each other in the quarter-finals last year, but De Minaur suffered a hip injury. He had beaten Arthur Fils in the fourth round and was preparing to face the seven-time Wimbledon winner. However, soon after hearing a huge "crack" during his clash against Fils, De Minaur called an emergency press conference to announce his early exit from the Grand Slam. He admitted he was devastated with the injury, which also ruled him out of the Olympic Games in Paris that summer. While Djokovic benefited from his injury by being given a bye into the semi-final, he was still concerned for his younger counterpart.

Djokovic said to the Tennis Channel: "I'm excited to be in another semi-finals. Obviously [De Minaur's injury is] not great for the tournament. It's never great to go through with a withdrawal of a player.

"I wish Alex the best in terms of recovery. I hope he can come back to the court. We saw that in the last point actually he injured himself.

"I was watching the replay of that point of his last match to try and understand where he injured himself. Some people were guessing whether it was an ankle, or hip or knee. I think in the end it was a hip.

"It's terrible. The biggest enemy of an athlete is injury. I wish him a speedy recovery. He was playing in red-hot form. It would've been a really tough match for both of us if we were playing today but it is what it is. I'm moving on to the semis."

This year, De Minaur has beaten Roberto Carballes Baena 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2), Arthure Cazaux 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 and August Holmgren 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 in his first three matches. As it would have been last year, Djokovic is the ultimate test for the Australian.

Djokovic recently revealed his true thoughts on the Aussie, highlighting the improvement in his game over the course of the last 12 months. The 24-time Grand Slam winner said: "Alex has also improved his game tremendously in the last couple years.

"He's playing the tennis of his life. He's definitely knocking on the door of the final stages of grand slams. He's gotten to the quarters several times (and) last year had to pull out unfortunately because of his injury. This year again he's there. He's playing well.

"(I'm) not super excited to play Alex de Minaur on grass, that's for sure, because he's so quick and he's a complete player all around. He has gained pace on his serve, as well. He hits his spots very well."