World number one Djokovic, chasing a sixth Wimbledon and record-equalling 20th Grand Slam title, won 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 over the 102nd-ranked South African.
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic plays a return to South Africa’s Kevin Anderson during the men’s singles second round match on day three of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Wednesday June 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
London: Defending champion Novak Djokovic survived a series of falls on Centre Court to reach the Wimbledon third round on Wednesday with a straight-sets win over Kevin Anderson.
World number one Djokovic, chasing a sixth Wimbledon and record-equalling 20th Grand Slam title, won 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 over the 102nd-ranked South African.
However, he slipped and fell on at least five occasions on Centre Court, the day after Serena Williams suffered a tearful, tournament-ending injury on Tuesday due to similar slips.
Each time, 34-year-old Djokovic dusted himself down to set up a clash against either Italian veteran Andreas Seppi or American qualifier Denis Kudla.
Despite the tumbles, the Serb cruised to victory over the man he defeated in the 2018 final without facing a single break point and committing just six unforced errors.
“I have a nice connection with the crowd,” said Djokovic.
“I also seem to be having a really nice connection with the grass. I don’t recall falling so much in the first two matches at Wimbledon previously.”
Kyrgios wins five-setter
Nick Kyrgios won his first match since the Australian Open on Wednesday, defeating French 21st seed Ugo Humbert in five sets at Wimbledon before declaring: “Not bad for a part-time player”.
The 60th-ranked Kyrgios triumphed 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 9-7 in a match held over from Tuesday evening when the final set was level at 3-3.
“Not bad for a part-time player,” said Kyrgios who had also defeated Humbert in five sets at the Australian Open.
“Ugo is an incredible kid and I knew I was a massive underdog.
“It was easy to get off the couch in Canberra as Wimbledon is one of my favourite events and I heard there was going to be a crowd so it was an easy decision to come here.”
“I got home late yesterday and was in such pain physically this morning, but it’s easy to get up with a full crowd and it was so much fun.”
“It’s a great change of scenery,” added Kyrgios who is playing his first event outside of his own country for the first time since the 2020 Australian Open.
Kyrgios shrugged off an ugly-looking fall in the 13th game of the final set when his right knee buckled beneath him.
On Tuesday, he was overheard muttering that Court One was a joke.
His 23 aces and 51 winners sent him into a second-round clash with Italy’s Gianluca Mager.
Four of those aces had come on Tuesday in the first game of the fourth set, a service game which took just 43 seconds.
Nishioka bests John Isner
Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka shrugged off a 36-ace barrage, as well as a 38-centimetre height difference, to defeat John Isner on Wednesday to reach the Wimbledon second round for the first time.
Nishioka won 7-6 (7/5), 2-6, 6-3, 6-7 (3/7), 6-4 against the 2018 semi-finalist who also unleashed 87 winners.
Standing at just 5ft 7ins (1.70m) to the 28th-seeded American’s 6ft 10in (2.08m), the 58th-ranked Nishioka triumphed after three previous first-round exits.
The 25-year-old will face Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia for a spot in the last 32.
Andreescu eliminated
Bianca Andreescu’s nightmare season continued on Wednesday when the 2019 US Open champion crashed out of Wimbledon in the first round, losing 6-2, 6-1 to Alize Cornet of France.
The 21-year-old fifth seed missed both Rome and Madrid due to testing positive for COVID-19
and then was knocked out in the first round of the French Open.
Cornet, 31, whose best run at Wimbledon is the fourth round in 2014, plays the winner of the match between Belgian qualifier Greet Minnen and Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic.
Alize Cornet in action against Bianca Andreescu. AP
It was the second time this month that Cornet has beaten Andreescu having knocked her out in the second round of the Berlin tournament.
Andreescu is the latest high profile women’s player to fail to progress to the second round.
Seven-time champion Serena Williams limped out of her match on Tuesday and two-time Wimbledon victor Petra Kvitova was knocked out on Monday.
Andreescu is still to win a main draw match at Wimbledon having lost in the first round as a qualifier in 2017.
Stay connected with us on social media platform for instant update click here to join our Twitter, & Facebook
We are now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@TechiUpdate) and stay updated with the latest Technology headlines.
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsAzi is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
