Djokovic and Rybakina ease into Wimbledon 3rd round
The Serb continues to rage against the dying of the light and showed why he has identified the grass of Wimbledon as his best chance of adding to his extraordinary tally in a superb all-round performance where he looked as sharp and fit as at any time in his incredible career.
He was never remotely troubled on serve until the final game of the match, while wildcard Evans had to scramble for almost everything on his – saving nine first-set break points before eventually succumbing on the 10th.
Djokovic continued to dominate as Evans, who beat him in their only previous meeting on clay four years ago, saw his tame sliced backhands repeatedly crashed back past him as the sixth seed romped home.
Since losing in the quarter-finals in 2017, Djokovic has reached the last six finals, winning the first four but losing the last two to Carlos Alcaraz, and it would be a brave man to bet against him making it seven in a row on Thursday's evidence.
Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov also reached the third round with a 7-5 4-6 7-5 7-5 victory over Frenchman Corentin Moutet.
Former women's champion Elena Rybakina barely needed to shift out of second gear as the 11th seed motored into the third round with a 6-3 6-1 victory over Greek Maria Sakkari.
Rybakina was gifted a break in the opening game when Sakkari produced three successive double faults and the 2022 Wimbledon champion held firm from there to wrap up the opening set with minimum fuss in front of a sparse crowd on Court One.
The 26-year-old dropped her serve in the opening game of the next set but responded immediately to get things back on track and then broke to love for a 3-1 lead, before proceeding to take apart former world number three Sakkari.
A backhand error on match point compounded Sakkari's woes and Rybakina celebrated the victory in typically muted fashion, with either Denmark's 23rd-seeded Clara Tauson or Russian Anna Kalinskaya awaiting her in the next round.
Elsewhere, seventh seed Mirra Andreeva blasted her way into the third round with a 6-1 7-6(4) victory over Italy's Lucia Bronzetti and thanked her coach, former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez, for making her work hard.
The 18-year-old Russian was the only teenager from six women's starters to have made it through to the second round and she looked sure-footed on Wimbledon's grass, the surface where she hit the headlines aged 16 with a whirlwind race to the fourth round in 2023.
Andreeva will play Hailey Baptiste of the United States, who beat Canada's Victoria Mboko on Thursday, in the third round of the singles on Saturday.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Dubai Eye
an hour ago
- Dubai Eye
Cilic takes Agassi's tried and tested route to get back into winning form
Catching a millionaire Grand Slam champion in action on the second-tier Challenger Circuit is a rare sight, especially since cheering fans and creature comforts are in short supply when compared to the glitz and glamour of the main ATP Tour events. Yet this is the world that Marin Cilic, who has amassed a fortune of almost $32 million in prize money alone, has been circulating in for most of this year after his ranking nosedived to outside the Top 1000 following knee surgery in 2023. With his ranking, which stood at 1092 last August, no longer high enough to gain entry into the ATP events, the Croatian opted to get back to basics at the Challenger level in order to obtain some much-needed match practice. It was a strategy that worked wonders for Andre Agassi way back in 1998 when he found himself in a tennis rut -- and within a year the American had won two Grand Slam titles. But whereas Agassi was aged 28 at the time, with years of tennis still left in him, Cilic decided to go down the rough road to tennis redemption in his mid 30s. Having put in the hard graft to get his body back into shape after damage to the meniscus and cartilage made his knee balloon in size, the Croatian was not ready to give up on his career. On Thursday, all the pain and strain he endured to get back to top-level tennis paid off when he marked his Wimbledon comeback with a 6-4 6-3 1-6 6-4 win over British fourth seed Jack Draper in the second round. "Considering everything that happened in last two, three years. If even I look at situation where I was, how my knee was in February '23, lots of rehab, lots of unknowns. Even coming back, the knee wasn't good. What to do then? New surgery?" the 2014 U.S. Open champion explained after returning to the All England Club for the first time since 2021. "Then all the time there was this spark of desire and feeling that my level is still there. Let me give myself another opportunity. "Now last eight, nine months I'm playing pain-free and progressing nicely, which is great." During the course of 2025, Cilic had won back-to-back matches on the main tour only once. However, he has worked his way back up the rankings to break back into the top 100 thanks to winning two of the seven Challenger tournaments he has entered. He tried qualifying for the French Open but lost his final qualifier and then still secured a place in the main draw as a lucky loser only to lose in the first round. That disappointment quickly faded when he won the Nottingham Challenger tournament just a few weeks later, ensuring he arrived in London with some much-needed match practice on grass -- a run that no doubt helped him to plot Draper's downfall on Thursday. "Last several weeks I've been playing really well. In Nottingham I played some great tennis. It was just layer after layer building up. Also feeling great in the training sessions, so I've got great confidence in my own self," said the 2017 Wimbledon runner-up. "These kind of matches, they challenge you to perform better because the opponent on the other side of the net is going to challenge you with his own game. But I'm aware that my level is very high. Can I go further? I feel I can." Draper summed up what it felt to be on the receiving end of an in-form Cilic. "I don't play many people on the tour that I feel like they completely bully me and take the racquet out of my hand," said the British number one. "I know it's a grass court. I'm not sure what his stats were but I'm sure he had an amazing match from the winners to unforced errors count." Draper was not wrong -- Cilic hit 53 incredible winners, while his British rival could muster only 29.
Khaleej Times
17 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Djokovic easing into old routine as seeds hit back at Wimbledon
Novak Djokovic showed signs that he is easing into the old routine at Wimbledon as the seven-times champion sauntered into the third round on Thursday and Barbora Krejcikova also made it through as her title defence continued. This year's Championships have been littered with seeds biting the dust early but day four offered some big statements from those fancied for deep runs on the lawns. Former women's champion Elena Rybakina may have arrived very much under the radar but has reached the third round for the loss of a mere seven games, the 11th seed destroying Greece's Maria Sakkari 6-3, 6-1 in 62 minutes. Five-times Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek, surprisingly yet to go past the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, is another who will quietly fancy her chances and the Pole looked impressive as she hit back from a set down to beat Caty McNally 5-7, 6-2, 6-1. Djokovic struggled past Alexandre Muller on Tuesday when he struggled with stomach issues. Two days later, however, he was at his ruthlessly efficient best in a 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 thrashing of popular Briton Dan Evans on Centre Court. The 38-year-old is bidding to equal Roger Federer's men's record eight titles and claim an unprecedented 25th Grand Slam crown and, while the talk is of top seed Jannik Sinner and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz disputing the final, the Serb should be dismissed at your peril. He has reached the last six Wimbledon finals and clearly believes he will still be around on July 13. "Technically, tactically I knew exactly what I needed to do and I executed perfectly," Djokovic said after his 99th match win at Wimbledon since making his debut in 2005. "Sometimes you have these kind of days, where everything goes your way, everything flows and it's good to be in the shoes and holding a racket on a day like this." Businesslike display Czech Krejcikova, a surprise winner last year, found herself out on Court 2 where the 17th seed produced a typically businesslike display as she battled past American Caroline Dolehide, winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. She will face a much more dangerous American next in the form of Emma Navarro after the 10th seed crushed Veronika Kudermetova 6-1, 6-2. With four of the top five women's seeds already gone, the draw looks wide open for the likes of seventh seed Mirra Andreeva who beat Italian Lucia Bronzetti 6-1, 7-6(4). Nearly half of the 32 men's seeds have perished before the third round with 13 failing to clear the first hurdle. But they reasserted themselves on Thursday. Australia's 11th seed Alex de Minaur beat Arthur Cazaux 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-0, while powerful Czech teenager Jakub Mensik, seeded 15, beat American Marcos Giron 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) to underline his credentials as a dangerous floater. Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, playing in his 59th successive Grand Slam, may no longer be considered a genuine title threat but more than a decade since reaching his sole Wimbledon semi-final showed he is still a class act as the 19th seed beat tricky Frenchman Corentin Moutet 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5. Later on Thursday, men's top seed Sinner was taking on Australian Aleksandar Vukic while fourth seed and home hope Jack Draper was up against dangerous Croatian Marin Cilic.
Dubai Eye
17 hours ago
- Dubai Eye
Djokovic and Rybakina ease into Wimbledon 3rd round
Seven-times Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic showed that he remains a real threat for a record-extending 25th Grand Slam title at the age of 38 with a 6-3 6-2 6-0 second-round destruction of Britain's Dan Evans on Thursday. The Serb continues to rage against the dying of the light and showed why he has identified the grass of Wimbledon as his best chance of adding to his extraordinary tally in a superb all-round performance where he looked as sharp and fit as at any time in his incredible career. He was never remotely troubled on serve until the final game of the match, while wildcard Evans had to scramble for almost everything on his – saving nine first-set break points before eventually succumbing on the 10th. Djokovic continued to dominate as Evans, who beat him in their only previous meeting on clay four years ago, saw his tame sliced backhands repeatedly crashed back past him as the sixth seed romped home. Since losing in the quarter-finals in 2017, Djokovic has reached the last six finals, winning the first four but losing the last two to Carlos Alcaraz, and it would be a brave man to bet against him making it seven in a row on Thursday's evidence. Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov also reached the third round with a 7-5 4-6 7-5 7-5 victory over Frenchman Corentin Moutet. Former women's champion Elena Rybakina barely needed to shift out of second gear as the 11th seed motored into the third round with a 6-3 6-1 victory over Greek Maria Sakkari. Rybakina was gifted a break in the opening game when Sakkari produced three successive double faults and the 2022 Wimbledon champion held firm from there to wrap up the opening set with minimum fuss in front of a sparse crowd on Court One. The 26-year-old dropped her serve in the opening game of the next set but responded immediately to get things back on track and then broke to love for a 3-1 lead, before proceeding to take apart former world number three Sakkari. A backhand error on match point compounded Sakkari's woes and Rybakina celebrated the victory in typically muted fashion, with either Denmark's 23rd-seeded Clara Tauson or Russian Anna Kalinskaya awaiting her in the next round. Elsewhere, seventh seed Mirra Andreeva blasted her way into the third round with a 6-1 7-6(4) victory over Italy's Lucia Bronzetti and thanked her coach, former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez, for making her work hard. The 18-year-old Russian was the only teenager from six women's starters to have made it through to the second round and she looked sure-footed on Wimbledon's grass, the surface where she hit the headlines aged 16 with a whirlwind race to the fourth round in 2023. Andreeva will play Hailey Baptiste of the United States, who beat Canada's Victoria Mboko on Thursday, in the third round of the singles on Saturday.
