WIMBLEDON, England — Novak Djokovic holds one record at Wimbledon that he wasn’t in any mood to break on Wednesday. In fact, he seemed in quite a hurry to fall short.

Djokovic had another late night underneath the Centre Court roof but made sure he didn’t have to stay quite as long as two years ago by wrapping up a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Ryan Harrison of the United States in just under two hours.

The top-ranked Serb is in the Wimbledon history books for having won the match with the latest finish ever in a tournament that began in 1877, a five-set victory over Olivier Rochus that finished at 10:59 p.m. in the first round in 2010.

He was tested again by Harrison but showed his sharpness in key moments to eliminate the American just before 10 p.m. local time.

“We went the distance until 10 o’clock in the night and played under the roof. It was a different condition,” the defending champion said. “It was a really enjoyable match.”

The match had a late starting time as it was the fourth of the day to be played on Centre Court — instead of the regular three — as Wimbledon played a bit of catch-up because of rain delays. Roger Federer needed less than 80 minutes to wrap up an easy win in the first, playing in front of Prince Charles who made his first visit to the tournament since 1970.

So by the time Djokovic was wrapping up his match, there was total darkness outside the Centre Court, where floodlights illuminated the white retractable roof and hundreds of seats were gaping empty as some fans had already gone home.

That didn’t take away from the experience for Djokovic though.

“Every time I step on Centre Court you can feel the different energy from any other tournament,” he said. “There’s a lot of tradition and history and champions who have made history on this court, so I’m trying to enjoy every single moment of it.”

The match against Harrison could easily have gone on much longer, as the contest was closer than the score suggests. Djokovic hit 31 winners to the Americans 30, with 15 unforced errors compared to 14 for Harrison. The difference came on break points. Djokovic converted all three that he earned, while Harrison went 0-6.

“I played really well from the start to the end, but it was a close match,” Djokovic said. “He performed really well when he needed to, but I got the crucial breaks in every set, and that was enough to win.”