Federer, Djokovic win as foes pull up injured
Barely break sweat in Wimbledon openers
LONDON — Novak Djokovic’s first-round match at Wimbledon lasted all of 40 minutes Tuesday. Roger Federer’s, which was next in the All England Club’s main stadium,went43.
When two of tennis’ biggest stars crossed paths after both advanced when opponents stopped playing because of pre-existing injuries, they kidded each other about a way to try tomakeituptothefans.
“We had a little joke about it in the locker room,” Djokovic recounted, “saying we should maybe play a practice set on the Centre Court, have the crowd stay.”
The short workdays for the two were quite similar. Djokovic led 6-3, 2-0 when Martin Klizan retired with a left leg problem that has bothered him for about two months; Federer was ahead 6-3, 3-0 when Alexandr Dolgopolov quit because of a painful right ankle he first twisted last month.
Those still go into the books as wins, allowing Federer to collect his 85th at Wimbledon, breaking a tie with Jimmy Connors for the most in the Open era. Djokovic picked up his 234th match victory at all majors, moving ahead of Connors and alone into second place in history, behind only Federer’s 315.
But the way the afternoon went meant Centre Court spectators who paid more than $70 per ticket, some of them waiting in line for hours, got only brief glimpses of seven-time champion Federer or three-time champion Djokovic. They did, however, have the opportunity to watch a pair of top women, current No. 1 Angelique Kerber and former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, win full-length matches.
“I feel for the crowd. They’re there to watch good tennis. Proper tennis. At least they see the two of us, who gave it all they had. They saw other players that tried, at least,” Federer said. “It’s unfortunate that it happened.”