Djokovic, Murray advance; Ferrer out 25 June 2014, 20:45 Top seed Novak Djokovic had to dig deep to reach the Wimbledon third round with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/5) victory over Czech veteran Radek Stepanek on Wednesday. Djokovic had dropped just five games in a ruthless first round demolition of Andrey Golubev, but the 2011 Wimbledon champion was pushed far harder by the canny Stepanek on Centre Court. The 27-year-old Serb, beaten by Andy Murray in last years final, surrendered a set for the first time in the tournament after squandering a 5-2 lead in the third set tie-break. But he recovered his composure to finish off the 35-year-old, who has now lost 11 of their 12 meetings, in three hours and 17 minutes and will face French world number 44 Gilles Simon for a place in the last 16. Djokovics victory ensured the world No 2 avoided the fate that befell his coach Boris Becker in 1987 when the German became the only male top seed to lose in the Wimbledon second round. MURRAY REVELS IN QUICK SECOND-ROUND WIN Andy Murray gave Slovenian Blaz Rola a painful lesson in what it takes to be a grand slam winner, when he blasted the former college champion out of Wimbledons second round 6-1 6-1 6-0. While the British No 1 was winning Wimbledon last year, Rola was winding up a successful college tennis career for Ohio State University. The contrast in quality was stark on Wednesday. Some of the biggest cheers on an otherwise partisan Court One were reserved for Rolas two winning games, the crowd willing him to avoid further embarrassment. But Murray, blasting winners from both sides of the court, put the 23-year-old firmly in his place to set up a third round clash with Czech Jan Hernych or Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain. DIMITROV REACHES THIRD ROUND Queens champion Grigor Dimitrov showed the value of extra grasscourt practice when an assured 6-3 6-2 6-4 victory over Australian Luke Saville took him into the third round for the first time. The 23-year-old Bulgarian, who blazed through the Wimbledon warm-up event two weeks ago, showed no Centre Court nerves in dispatching Saville, 20, like him a former junior champion at the All England Club. After being knocked out in the second round in his last three appearances at Wimbledon, Dimitrov said he was delighted to move further into the tournament. I always wanted to do that. I wanted to do well on grass, he said. At the moment Im trying to adapt to each player each day. Dimitrov has risen through the rankings to 13th this year after winning titles in Acapulco and Bucharest as well as Queens. He won the boys Wimbledon title in 2008 and qualifier Saville, the second youngest man in the draw and now ranked 236 in the world, followed him in 2011. GULBIS OUT French Open semifinalist Ernests Gulbis, meanwhile, became the highest ranked man to lose so far at the tournament when the 12th seed went down to Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5). Stakhovksy, who shocked Roger Federer in the second round in 2013, next faces either Frances Jeremy Chardy or Australias Marinko Matosevic for a place in the last 16. FERRER GRAND SLAM STREAK ENDED Spanish seventh seed David Ferrer failed in his bid to reach an 18th consecutive third round at a Grand Slam when he was knocked out by Russian qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov. The 32-year-old Ferrer last failed to reach the third round at a major at the 2010 Australian Open. But Kuznetsov, the world number 118, claimed a famous 6-7 (5/7), 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win to reach the third round at Wimbledon for the first time. Ferrer had come into the tournament still suffering the after-effects of the illness which forced him out of the s-Hertogenbosch grasscourt warm-up in the Netherlands last week. Twice a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon, Ferrer had reached the round of 16 at the last 16 Slams, and the quarterfinals at the last 10. Wednesdays win was a first top 10 triumph for Kuznetsov, the 2009 junior champion at Wimbledon. BERDYCH PAINKILLERS JUST THE TONIC VS TOMIC Tomas Berdych played through the pain to down Bernard Tomic in a gruelling encounter for a place in the third round. The Czech sixth seed, struggling with a wrist injury, needed a dose of painkillers to get through the match on Court 1, beating the Australian 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 in two and a half hours. Berdych, the beaten finalist four years ago at the All England Club, faces Croatian 26th seed Marin Cilic in the third round.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 19:28:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015