Friday, June 24, 2011

GreenBkk.com World Sport | Djokovic and Federer cruise through to third round

Djokovic and Federer cruise through to third round

June 23, 2011 -- Updated 2148 GMT (0548 HKT)


Novak Djokovic will now face Marcos Baghdatis in the third round after another convincing performance on Thursday.

(CNN) -- Novak Djokovic continued his impressive run of form this year by cruising into the third round at Wimbledon after beating South African Kevin Anderson in straight sets.

The second-seeded Serb, who has lost only one match in 2011, took under two hours to power past Anderson 6-3 6-4 6-2 and expressed delight at his performance.

I'm really happy with the opening two rounds at Wimbledon," Djokovic told the official ATP Tour website.

"Two straight set wins, I cannot ask for more, and I'm physically feeling great on the court," he added.




"I'm returning really well, which is important. Using more an efficiency of the serve and precision rather than going just for the speed," continued Djokovic, who now faces 32nd seed Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus -- who beat Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-4 7-6 7-5.

And Djokovic was later joined in the last 32 by six-times champion and third seed Roger Federer, who dropped just seven games in the late evening match on Centre Court, crushing Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 6-2 6-3 6-2 in just under 90 minutes.

Fifth seed Robin Soderling also went through, but the Swede had to dig deep into his reserves to beat former champion Lleyton Hewitt after dropping the opening two sets of the match.

Cheered on by some partisan Australian supporters, Hewitt rolled back the years to stand on the brink of a great victory -- but Soderling fought back to go through 6-7 3-6 7-5 6-4 6-4.

"You just have to take it one point at a time," Soderling told reporters. "But I felt that if I could raise my game a little bit I would have a chance."

In other matches, former U.S. Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro, seeded 24th after returning to action this year following a wrist injury, showed devastating form to recover from losing the opening set on Wednesday evening to beat Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-7 6-1 6-0 6-4.

Spanish clay-court specialist Nicolas Almagro, seeded 16th, got the better of American John Isner in four sets, while there was also a four-set win for Queen's Club finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 12th seed, in an entertaining match on Court One against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

There were also wins for former finalist David Nalbandian, seeded 27th, and French 19th seed Michael Llodra, both in four sets, while 18th-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny saw off India's Somdev Devvarman in straight sets.

However, Viktor Troicki became the highest-ranked man to lose so far, the 13th-seeded Serb going down 7-6 6-4 6-4 to Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan, who reached the quarterfinals here last year.

Two other seeds followed Troicki out of the tournament. German 20th seed Florian Mayer slumped 1-6 6-3 6-2 6-2 to Belgian Xavier Malisse, while 26th seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain lost 7-6 6-4 3-6 6-4 to Slovakian Karol Beck.

Credit: CNN (www.cnn.com)

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