Federer, Djokovic advance; Pliskova loses
Americans Sock, Isner among seeded players eliminated
LONDON — Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic had to play all three sets at Wimbledon this time.
The former champions both advanced to the third round Thursday, two days after their opening matches ended early when their opponents retired with an injury.
Federer was broken early in his match, but the seven-time champion recovered quickly and beat Dusan Lajovic 7-6 (0), 6-3, 6-2. Djokovic, a three-time champion, defeated Adam Pavlasek 6-2, 6-2, 6-1.
Djokovic won the Wimbledon title in 2011, ’14 and ’15. But he has not won a major title since completing a career Grand Slam at the 2016 French Open.
In his opening two matches at the All England Club, Djokovic has only lost eight games.
“It’s perfect. Exactly what I want,” Djokovic said. “I don’t want to have any five-set matches in there.”
Djokovic will next face Ernests Gulbis. The unseeded Latvian defeated Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (3).
Federer has lost 14 games so far and will next face 27th-seeded Mischa Zverev.
Milos Raonic, Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev, Grigor Dimitrov, Gael Monfils and David Ferrer also reached the third round. Ferrer advanced when opponent Steve Darcis retired with an injury while trailing 3-0.
Two seeded American lost. No. 17 Jack Sock was beaten by Austria’s Sebastian Ofner. And John Isner’s 45 aces were not enough for the 23rd-seed as he lost to 90th-ranked Dudi Sela of Israel 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
Isner has never been past the third round at Wimbledon, where he won the longest match in tennis history in 2010, 70-68 in the fifth set.
“It’s all between the ears, I think,” Isner said. “I had opportunities, of course. When I don’t go for it, bad things happen.”
Sela arrived at the All England Club this year with a 4-8 career record at the grass-court major, including six first-round losses.
One of the favorites in the women’s tournament, third-seeded Karolina Pliskova, lost on Centre Court. Magdalena Rybarikova beat Pliskova 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 to reach the third round for the second time in 10 appearances.
Pliskova entered the tournament with a chance to take over the No. 1 ranking.
“My expectations were a little bit different than to make one round here,” Pliskova said. “That’s tennis, you know. Still, you still can play well and you don’t have to win. That’s my case today.”
Top-seeded Angelique Kerber also advanced to the third round, along with seventh-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova, ninth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, 14th-seeded Garbine Muguruza and 24th-seeded CoCo Vandeweghe.
American wild-card entry Bethanie Mattek-Sands injured her right knee during her second-round match.
Moving up toward the net in the opening game of the third set against Sorana Cirstea of Romania, Mattek-Sands slipped and fell. She immediately clutched her right knee and could be heard screaming in pain and sobbing, imploring for someone to, “Help me! Help me!”
Her opponent, Sorana Cirstea, immediately climbed over the net to check on Mattek-Sands, who after about 20 minutes was removed from Court 17 on a stretcher and taken to a hospital.
“Her knee was in a very weird position. I’ve never seen anything like this, probably, except in the movies. And, yeah, I panicked a little bit, as well,” Cirstea said. “Then I called
At a glance
Thursday’s highlights: Third-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic was beaten by Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia in three sets and was the highest-seeded player to lose on Day 4. Unseeded Alison Riske of the U.S. upset No. 12 Kristina Mladenovic of France. On the men’s side, four seeded players lost, including Americans Jack Sock (17th) and John Isner (23rd). Sock lost in five sets to Austria’s Sebastian Ofner and Isner was beaten by Dudi Sela of Israel. Today’s preview: Defending champion Andy Murray takes on a familiar adversary at Centre Court in the third round: 28thseeded Fabio Fognini of Italy. They have played six times, each earning three victories; the most recent match came in May on clay in Rome, where Fognini won in straight sets. Also on Centre Court, Rafael Nadal faces 30thseeded Karen Khachanov, a 21-year-old Russian appearing in only his fourth Grand Slam tournament. Others in action on Day 5 include five-time champion Venus Williams against Naomi Osaka, a 19-year-old from Japan, and 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic against 26th-seeded Steve Johnson of the U.S. Today’s TV: 6 a.m., ESPN.
for help, but no one was coming. Then (I) tried to comfort her as much as I could. But, I mean, you could feel the pain.”