London, Jun 29 (AFP): Defending champion Novak Djokovic reached the Wimbledon third round for the 16th time on Wednesday as potential semi-final opponent Casper Ruud crashed out.<\/p>\n
Top seed Djokovic brushed aside 79th-ranked Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 and will face Serbian compatriot Miomir Kecmanovic for a last-16 place.<\/p>\n
Third seed and French Open runner-up Ruud was knocked out by 112th-ranked Ugo Humbert, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4.<\/p>\n
“I’m very happy with my performance. I started very well, solid from the back of the court,” said Djokovic, who is looking to join Pete Sampras as a seven-time Wimbledon champion.<\/p>\n
“I made him work for every point and worked him around the court,” added the 20-time major winner.<\/p>\n
Kokkinakis had likened Djokovic to a “brick wall” before the match.<\/p>\n
“It was one-way traffic. I got chopped today,” said the 26-year-old Australian after his Centre Court torment.<\/p>\n
In the women’s event, second seed Anett Kontaveit lost 6-4, 6-0 to Germany’s Julie Niemeier as the Estonian endured another Grand Slam to forget.<\/p>\n
Kontaveit has made the quarter-finals of a major just once in 29 attempts.<\/p>\n
Ninth seed and 2017 champion Garbine Muguruza also exited in her delayed first-round clash, losing 6-4, 6-0 to Belgium’s Greet Minnen.<\/p>\n
Lesia Tsurenko came out on top in three sets over Ukrainian compatriot Anhelina Kalinina to make the third round for the second time.<\/p>\n
Tsurenko, ranked at 101, proudly wore a ribbon in the colours of Ukraine on her shirt.<\/p>\n
“It was a big court. Two Ukrainian players but a lot of people were watching us. We felt amazing support,” said Tsurenko after her 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win.<\/p>\n
“Today on the way from hotel to the club, we got a driver,” she added. “She has taken two people from Ukraine into her house.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s amazing when people help Ukrainians so much.”<\/p>\n
Later Wednesday, two-time champion Andy Murray puts his 8-0 record against John Isner on the line in their second-round clash.<\/p>\n
Former number one Murray, now down at 52 in the world, needed four sets to defeat Australia’s James Duckworth on Monday.<\/p>\n
At one point, the British star dropped in an underarm serve to carve out a winning point, much to the delight of the Centre Court crowd.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know why some people find it disrespectful,” said Murray.<\/p>\n
Despite his losing record against Murray, 37-year-old Isner has never played the Briton on grass.<\/p>\n
He is confident he has the weapons at his disposal, having fired 54 aces to knock out qualifier Enzo Couacaud on Monday.<\/p>\n
“I’m older than Andy, I’m no spring chicken, but I work hard,” said the American, who stands 6 feet 10 inches (2.08 metres) tall.<\/p>\n
Isner has now served 13,688 aces in Tour-level matches during his career — just 40 behind the record of 13,728 held by Ivo Karlovic.<\/p>\n
Isner was one of 13 American men to reach the second round, the most since 1995.<\/p>\n
Spanish teen sensation and fifth seed Carlos Alcaraz aims for a place in the last 32 for the first time when he meets Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
Britain’s US Open champion Emma Raducanu tackles France’s Caroline Garcia, who collected her third grass-court title at Bad Homburg last week.<\/p>\n
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London, Jun 29 (AFP): Defending champion Novak Djokovic reached the Wimbledon third round for the 16th time on Wednesday as potential semi-final opponent Casper Ruud crashed out. Top seed Djokovic brushed aside 79th-ranked Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 and will face Serbian compatriot Miomir Kecmanovic for a last-16 place. Third seed and French […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-194248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}