AP – Defending champion Novak Djokovic reached the Wimbledon third round for the 16th time with a straight sets win over Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis yesterday.
Djokovic, who is bidding to equal Pete Sampras as a seven-time champion at the All England Club, eased past his 79th-ranked opponent 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.
The top seed will face either fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic or Alejandro Tabilo of Chile for a place in the last 16.
Meanwhile, third seed and French Open runner-up Casper Ruud was knocked out of Wimbledon in the second round on yesterday, going down in four sets to Ugo Humbert of France.
Ruud, bidding to become the first Norwegian player since 1962 to reach the last 32 at Wimbledon, lost 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4.
Humbert, ranked 112, had never won a match at the All England Club before this week. He will face Belgian David Goffin for a place in the last 16.
Yesterday, Harmony Tan pulled out of the Wimbledon doubles tournament, just hours after she had stunned Serena Williams, leaving her partner “sad, disappointed and angry”.
French player Tan was scheduled to play women’s doubles with Tamara Korpatsch but withdrew with a thigh injury.
“She just texted me this morning,” Germany’s Korpatsch wrote on Instagram. “Let me wait here one hour before the match started. I’m very sad, disappointed and also very angry that I can’t play my first Doubles Grand Slam.
“It’s really not fair. She asked me before the tournament if we wanna play doubles and I said yes. I didn’t ask her, she asked me.
“If you’re broken after a three-hour match the day before, you can’t play professional. That’s my opinion.”
Tan needed three hours and 11 minutes to knock out seven-time champion Williams in the first round of the singles in a tie that finished on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, second seed Anett Kontaveit was knocked out of Wimbledon, losing 6-4, 6-0 to Germany’s Julie Niemeier. Estonia’s Kontaveit has made the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam just once in 29 attempts.
Niemeier is into the third round of a major for the first time.
