Novak Djokovic dispatches Anderson to enter 3rd round

Wimbledon: Alize Cornet upsets Bianca Andreescu

LONDON: Top seed and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic cruised through to the third round at Wimbledon with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 win over 2018 finalist Kevin Anderson on Wednesday.

Djokovic was dominant as he won four out of the eight break points he got and did not face any break point from the South African who seems to have plateaued after a good start to his career.

The Serb won 84 per cent of the points on his first serve and 73 per cent of the points on second serve.

Anderson committed three double faults to Djokovic's one.

Djokovic is eyeing a hat-trick of Wimbledon titles, a feat that only Roger Federer, Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras have achieved previously.

In another match, seventh-seeded Italian Matteo Berrettini scored a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory over Guido Pella of Argentina in two hours and 16 minutes to advance to the second round. The 25-year-old Berrettini smashed 20 aces.

"[My confidence was] definitely something that helped me today when things got a little bit complicated," said Berrettini.

Also winning was Kei Nishikori, who became only the 12th active player to record 100 Grand Slam match wins after he defeated Australian Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to enter the second round.

However, 20th seed Aslan Karatsev, a rising start from Russia, crashed out in the first round after he lost to Jeremy Chardy 7-6(4), 7-6(6), 6-3.

Meanwhile in women's singles France's world No. 58 Alize Cornet caused a major upset when she beat world No. 7 Bianca Andreescu of Canada 6-2, 6-1 in their delayed first-round match in one hour and 22 minutes on Wednesday.

This is the second time in three weeks that Alize has beaten the 21-year-old Bianca, seeded fifth here.

The Frenchwoman had won their second-round clash in Berlin a fortnight ago, going on to reach her first grass-court semi-final.

Alize, 31, is playing her 14th Wimbledon, having competed in every main draw since 2007, while Bianca was playing her third, having qualified in 2017 and lost in the first round to Kristina Kucova of Slovakia. She had fallen in the 2018 qualifying to German Antonia Lottner.

Alize mixed her powerful, flat forehand strokes with near-perfect net play to thrash her opponent. Bianca, meanwhile, was increasingly unsure of her footing, which Alize took advantage of by playing the drop shot whenever the former US Open champion slipped on fresh Wimbledon grass.

The first set was much closer than the scoreline suggests, with Bianca playing some great slices and drop shots. But from 2-2, Alize won four close tussles in a row as consistency deserted Bianca.

No.16 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and No.19 seed Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic both won their delayed first-round matches on Wednesday. Anastasia, the French Open finalist this year, defeated Ana Bogdan of Romania 6-2, 6-2, while Karolina eased past Nottingham runner-up Zhang Shuai of China 6-3, 6-3.

Both are former quarter-finalists at Wimbledon — Anastasia reached that stage in 2016, while Karolina upset compatriot Karolina Pliskova in a fourth round clash here in 2019. They remain on course to clash in the third round this year. (IANS)

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