After a four-set thriller in his opening match, Novak Djokovic upped his game to defeat Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets to enter the third round of Wimbledon on Thursday (IST).
LONDON — After a four-set thriller in his opening match, Novak Djokovic upped his game to defeat Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets to enter the third round of Wimbledon on Thursday (IST).
Djokovic needed just 98 minutes to swat aside Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 and secure his place in the third round of the grass-court major for the 20th time.
For the past eight years, these two have been bumping into each other at events all over the world, and for most of those eight years, Djokovic has walked away the winner. He has won 12 of their 14 encounters, the last 11 of them on the bounce.
When the first set whistled by him in 27 neat and tidy minutes, Tsitsipas’s chances of doing that looked awfully slim. The Greek pushed a bit harder in the second set, serving with greater power and accuracy. He kept Djokovic at arm’s length for eight games until the Serb tightened the thumb screws.
After one hour, Tsitsipas faced another break point. He tried and tried but he could not keep the ball out of Djokovic’s reach. He gave it his all and still Djokovic was there in front of him. And then, at the end of a 15-stroke rally, it was the younger man (younger by 12 years) who crumbled. Four points and a matter of seconds later and the No.7 seed was two sets to the good.
Come the third set, the former world No.1 was in no mood to hang around. He secured a break for a 3-2 lead and sped towards the finish line with a near-perfect report card: 33 winners, seven unforced errors.
"You feel very happy, satisfied and joyful on the court when you are playing this way," Djokovic said in his on-court interview. "Once you get the momentum going... That game when I went 5-2 up was one of the best return games I've played in a while. I just went for my shots. I was a bit more relaxed, a little less tension in my head."