Sweet sixteen as Nole cruises
London, June 29: Defending champion Novak Djokovic reached the Wimbledon third round for the 16th time on Wednesday with a straight sets win over Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Djokovic, who is bidding to equal Pete Sampras as a seventime champion at the All England Club, eased past his 79thranked opponent 6-1, 64, 6-2.
The top seed will face either fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic or Alejandro Tabilo of Chile for a place in the last 16.
Casper Ruud, the runner-up to Rafael Nadal at this year’s French Open, became the seventh of the top 11-ranked male players to be out of the grasscourt Grand Slam for either losing early, injury, illness or being banned.
Ruud, who was seeded third but ranked sixth, lost to Ugo Humbert of France 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 on Wednesday in the second round.
Nadal advanced to the second round on Tuesday.
The third-ranked Djokovic, No. 4 Nadal, No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas and No. 7 Carlos Alcaraz are the only players in the top 11 remaining in the draw. Top-ranked Daniil Medvedev and No. 8 Andrey Rublev are out because of a ban on Russians over the war in Ukraine, No.
2 Alexander Zverev is injured and No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz lost, and No. 11 Matteo Berrettini withdrew with Covid-19.
In the women’s tournament, second-seeded Anett Kontaveit and 2017 Wimbledon champion Garbiñe Muguruza were also eliminated. Kontaveit lost to Juke Niemeier of Germany 6-4, 6-0, while the ninth-seeded Muguruza was beaten by Greet Minnen 6-4, 60.
Among the winners were No. 6 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, who beat Tereza Martincova 7-6 (1), 7-5. — Agencies