Lackluster match enough for Djokovic in Wimbledon opener
WIMBLEDON, England — Novak Djokovic’s play was not particularly, well, Djokovic-esque, at Wimbledon on Monday.
Even he acknowledged as much.
He got broken early and trailed
3-1 as he began his bid for a fourth consecutive championship and seventh overall at the grasscourt Grand Slam tournament. He recovered to take that set, then dropped the next. He slipped and fell to the grass. He accumulated more unforced errors than his opponent. Maybe he was a bit under the weather; he grabbed tissues from a black box on the sideline and blew his nose. Maybe he was simply a bit off, not having played a match that mattered in nearly a full month.
This, though, is the topseeded Djokovic, and there’s a reason he extended his winning streak at the All England Club to 22, and his career victory total there to 80 — making him the first player in tennis history with at least that many at each major — by beating Kwon Soon-woo of South Korea 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 at Centre Court under the retractable roof.
With the exception of a loss for No. 7 seed Hubert Hurkacz, a semifinalist at the All England Club a year ago, Day 1 signaled a fairly routine return to pre-pandemic normal, with capacity crowds, zero masks, the Wimbledon Queue in full effect and, of course, onand-off-and-on-again showers.
Hurkacz, coming off a grass title over the weekend, lost 7-6 (4), 6-4, 5-7, 2-6, 7-6 (10-8) to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in a match that featured Wimbledon’s new final-set format: women’s third sets and men’s fifth sets that get to 6-all will go to a first-to-10and-win-by-two tiebreaker.
➤ Andy Murray, who has won two of this three major championships at Wimbledon, earned a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 win over James Duckworth at Centre Court. He advances to face John Isner after the American defeated Enzo Couacaud, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
➤ Murray followed another triumph there by a British major title winner, reigning U.S. Open champ Emma Raducanu. The 19year-old defeated Alison Van Uytvanck, 6-4, 6-4.
➤ Marin Cilic says he is not able to play Wimbledon because he tested positive for COVID-19. The 2014 U.S. Open champion will be replaced in the draw by 123rdranked Nuno Borges of Portugal.