Nadal, Djokovic advance to 3rd round; Cilic falls

Spaniard Rafael Nadal and Serbian Novak Djokovic each continued to cruise through the competition at Wimbledon, advancing to the third round of the event with straight-set victories on Thursday.

Third-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic wasn’t as fortunate, falling to Argentine Guido Pella in the resumption of a match suspended Wednesday by inclement weather.

Nadal, the No. 2 seed, cruised past Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 on Centre Court at the All England Club, while Djokovic, seeded 12th, ousted Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 on Court 2.

Nadal was put to work by Kukushkin from the start, staving off three break points in the first game. The top-ranked Spaniard went ahead 3-0, only to be tied 3-3 before winning three of the last four games to clinch the first set.

Nadal held leads of 4-1 and 5-2 on his way to winning the second set and was once again forced to battle in the third set, fending off five break points in the second game. Kukushkin took a 3-1 lead in the set before Nadal roared back and won five of the last six games.

Kukushkin struck more winners than Nadal (28-19), though he was undone by 34 unforced errors.

Djokovic went unbroken in his victory, claiming seven games in a row between the end of the first set and start of the second, and struck 15 aces and 31 winners. He committed only four unforced errors compared to 27 by Zeballos.

Cilic had claimed the first two sets and was down a break in the third set at 3-4 with Pella serving when the match was suspended. Pella claimed the third set upon play’s resumption and carried the momentum to a 3-6, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-5 upset.

In the conclusion of other matches suspended Wednesday, eighth-seeded South African Kevin Anderson defeated Italian Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4, and ninth-seeded American John Isner rallied to beat Belgian qualifier Ruben Bemelmans 6-1, 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-7(3), 7-5.

German Philipp Kohlschreiber, the No. 25 seed, battled past Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3), and 31st-seeded Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas triumphed over American Jared Donaldson, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3.

Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka, who knocked off sixth-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the opening round, fell to Italian qualifier Thomas Fabbiano, 7-6(7), 6-3, 7-6(6). On the women’s side, world No. 1 Simona Halep continued her strong showing at Wimbledon with another straight-set victory while former No. 1 Angelique Kerber was forced to rally in advancing to the third round.

Meanwhile, home country favorite Johanna Konta, seeded 22nd, was upset by Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova 6-3, 6-4.

Kerber dropped her first set to American Claire Liu before roaring back for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 win.

Halep, meanwhile, got off to a slow start against China’s Zheng Saisai before winning 7-5, 6-0 in 1 hour, 18 minutes. The top-seeded Romanian won the last 10 games after falling behind 5-3 and having her serve broken twice in the first set.

Konta, ranked 24th, staved off four match points in the ninth game before Cibulkova served out the victory in 1 hour, 19 minutes.

On TV: Wimbledon mid-round action (live on Sport5 from 1:15 p.m. Friday and Saturday)