Djokovic Beats Muller In First Match Since Wimbledon Exit
Photo Credit: Lee Seidner
Playing in his first match since his Round of 32 loss to American Sam Querrey at Wimbledon, world number one Novak Djokovic made his way into the Rogers Cup third round with a 7-5, 7-6(3) victory over Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller.
It wasn’t the prettiest performance from Djokovic who was shaking off some rust after not playing for three weeks, but was able to play his best in the big points. He converted on his only break point chance in the opening set, and fought back from 1-3 down in the second set tiebreaker, winning the final six points to advance in straight sets.
In the third round, Djokovic will take on 37-year old Radek Stepanek.
American qualifier Ryan Harrison notched an impressive win at the Rogers Cup on Wednesday, downing fellow American John Isner 7-6(3), 6-7(4), 6-4 to reach the third round.
After each player snuck out tiebreaker wins in the first and second sets, the match headed into a deciding third set. Harrison played much better in the third set, winning 80 percent of the points on his first serves, saving the only break point he faced and converting on one of his two break point chances on Isner’s big serve.
Harrison will look to continue his run when he takes on fifth-seed Tomas Berdych in the third round. Berdych came back to defeat Borna Coric 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in his match on Wednesday.
American Rajeev Ram pulled off an upset as well, knocking off Frenchman Lucas Pouille 6-4, 7-6(5). Ram had a chance to serve the match out at 5-4 in the second set, but was broken as Pouille forced a tiebreaker. Ram regrouped in the breaker to stifle any comeback chance and advance.
Ram will take on the third-seed Kei Nishikori, who snuck past American qualifier Dennis Novikov 6-4, 7-5.
“I thought it was a good match, good enough for the first match since Wimbledon,” said Nishikori. “I knew I was going to get ups and downs because I haven’t played matches in a long time and I didn’t practice much in the first couple of weeks after getting injured. But it was still a good, solid match today."
Nishikori converted on five of his nine break point chances to cruise into the third round.
12th seed Bernard Tomic rolled past Canadian wild card Steven Diez 6-3, 7-6(4), and will take on Kevin Anderson next, Anderson led 4-1 over Dominic Thiem before the Austrian was forced to retire.
