Djokovic, Federer Highlight Rain-Shortened Day at Wimbledon
Novak Djokovic won his 30th consecutive Grand Slam match on Tuesday afternoon, moving past France’s Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(5) to reach the third round.
Djoker looked to be on his way to a routine victory through the first two sets. He notched one break point in both the first and second set, while winning 78 percent of the points on his own serve.
The world number one from Serbia seemed poised to wrap up the third set in the same fashion as he secured a break point and was serving for the match up 5-4 in the third. But two double-faults opened the door for Mannarino to break and the Frenchman complied, eventually forcing the third set into a tiebreaker.
But Djokovic made sure he would close the door this time around, opening up a 5-2 lead in the ensuing tiebreaker before closing it out 7-5 to advance.
Because of the rain, the match was played under the Centre Court roof.
“The atmosphere when the roof is closed is a little more special,” said Djokovic. “It gets loud and when I failed to serve it out at 5-4 in the third, the crowd really got into it. It was fun.”
Djokovic will look to build on his Grand Slam winning streak when he takes on the winner of Thomaz Bellucci and Sam Querrey in the third round. Their match was suspended due to the rain with Querrey leading 6-4, 5-2.
Marcus Willis’ thrilling Wimbledon run came to a close on Wednesday as the 25-year old fell to Roger Federer.
This second-round match featured two players who couldn’t have juxtaposed one another anymore. Willis was playing in his first ever Grand Slam tournament this week while Federer is a seven-time champion at Wimbledon and is arguably the greatest player of all-time.
That contrast was evident. Federer cruised to a 6-0, 6-3, 6-4 victory to earn his spot in the third round.
“I always knew it was going to be a completely different match than anything I’ve played before at Wimbledon,” said Federer. “It’s always special to play here on Centre Court. For him it’s the first time. It’s like when I walked out against Pete [Sampras] in 2001. He had nothing to lose; just enjoy yourself, and Marcus did wonderful.”
Federer will take on the winner of Alexander Dolgopolov and Dan Evans, whose match was suspended due to the rain.
Tomas Berdych, Dominic Thiem, Bernard Tomic and Alexander Zverev highlighted the other winners on the men’s side on Wednesday, while many of today’s matches will be resumed tomorrow.
