For the first time this year at the U.S. Open, Novak Djokovic inched closer to looking more like himself in his third-round match.

The Serbian had not played a competitive singles match since Wimbledon and won two subpar matches to kick off the year’s final Grand Slam. It has been a slow start to the tournament, but his Friday night performance proved to be enough in a 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-3 win over Cameron Norrie in nearly three hours.

The crucial hiccups that there were, though, could have thrown off the match against a stronger opponent.

“My team wants me to suffer on the court so I can get some more minutes spent on match play,” Djokovic said on the court after the win. “It’s good that I get tested. I haven’t had any matches since Wimbledon … still trying to find my groove. I think this is the best I’ve played so far in the tournament.”

One came late in the first set and it looked like Djokovic was at risk of retiring from the match for an early night at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

For eight straight games in the first set, he was wowing the crowd with nine aces against the Englishman after having a total of 10 just a match ago.

Yet, after breaking Norrie in the seventh game and powering four aces across the net to take the next for a 5-3 set lead, Djokovic started to rub and stretch out his back with a grimace on his face after a net point.

He eventually called for a trainer and was evaluated off court during a break, prompting a medical timeout.

Djokovic came back out, settling crowd nerves, and took the first set, 6-4. Yet, it was a less mobile version of himself and during another break, trainers came back out to tend to him, rubbing his back.

“In terms of how I’m feeling, it really goes up and down, to be honest,” he said in his post-match news conference. “Yeah, it’s frustrating for me, honestly, that I’m not able to feel 100 percent always like I have for 20-plus years. But yeah, I guess the circumstances are quite different and I have to get used to the fact that every match there’s something that might happen as it has been the case this year pretty much every slam.”

Djokovic managed to brush it aside and made it a distant memory despite a second set that saw five double faults including one that lost him the set tiebreak to Norrie.

He showed separation in the final two sets as the senior player at 38, totaling 18 aces on the night for his most ever in a match at the U.S. Open.

“I still feel like I enjoy myself competing, can be very hard on myself and my team, I know that, but I still feel like I have game left in me, you know, to play at the highest level,” he said. “I want to keep pushing myself to see, you know, whether I can have a shot at another slam or, you know, any big tournaments.”

Djokovic’s slow start was also benefited by an early exit by Frances Tiafoe, who lost to qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff in straight sets.

He will face the German in the fourth-round on Sunday, setting him up with an easier schedule. Nevertheless, Struff has been on a run — also beating No. 11 Holger Rune in a five-set second-round thriller.