- Saturday, April 27, 2024
Djokovic secured his 350th Grand Slam victory by defeating Australia’s Jordan Thompson with a score of 6-3, 7-6(4), 7-5
By: Kimberly Rodrigues
Wimbledon faced challenges on Wednesday (05), from both climate change protesters and persistent rainfall, causing additional difficulties for the organisers.
But despite the mounting security and scheduling concerns, the reigning men’s champion, Novak Djokovic, advanced smoothly to the third round of the tournament.
Djokovic secured his 350th Grand Slam victory by defeating Australia’s Jordan Thompson with a score of 6-3, 7-6(4), 7-5.
In the women’s draw, top-seeded player Iga Swiatek similarly cruised into the third round.
However, in other areas, the situation was more chaotic as the ambitious goal of completing 87 singles matches, following Tuesday’s nearly washed-out schedule, became unattainable due to heavy rain showers that disrupted the early part of the day.
As a result, a total of 21 matches had to be cancelled. By the end of the day, 10 first-round matches in the men’s draw and seven in the women’s draw had either not commenced or remained unfinished.
While Djokovic and Swiatek comfortably advanced to the third round, players like Germany’s Alexander Zverev, the 19th seed in the men’s category, and Karolina Muchova, the 16th seed in the women’s category, are yet to even begin their matches due to the unfavourable weather conditions.
On top of the fickle weather, that comes after Britain enjoyed its hottest June on record, the much-anticipated Just Stop Oil protests finally arrived.
Twice on Court 18, activists interrupted play, running on to the court and sprinkling ticker-tape and, bizarrely, jigsaw puzzle pieces contained in souvenir 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle boxes, over the lush grass.
The first incident occurred during Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov’s victory over Japan’s Sho Shimabukuro while the following match involving Britain’s Katie Boulter and Australian Daria Saville was also briefly halted.
Security staff dealt with both incidents quickly and there was no damage to the court.
The Metropolitan Police said three protesters had been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass and criminal damage.
‘Not pleasant’
Former semi-finalist Dimitrov later said that Wimbledon’s beefed up security arrangements were adequate.
“Obviously, it’s not pleasant. In the end of the day there is not much you can do. I think everyone in a way did their part as quick as possible,” the he told reporters.
“I thought everything was just handled good.”
Djokovic had no such concerns as he maintained his pursuit of a record-equalling eighth Wimbledon title and a 24th Grand Slam singles title to equal the record of Margaret Court.
Next up could be Stan Wawrinka, the man who beat him in the French Open final eight years ago or Argentina’s 29th seed Tomas Etcheverry. Their match was one of the day’s casualties.
Poland’s 22-year-old top seed Swiatek has already won four Grand Slams but Wimbledon has been complicated up until now.
However, after outclassing Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-2 6-0 on Centre Court she looks in the mood for a title tilt.
“I’m happy that I can play such a solid game and kind of do what I was practising,” Swiatek said on court.
“I feel pretty confident and pretty happy. Which doesn’t happen often, honestly. So, I’m happy that this is the first year where I finally kind of feel like I learned a lot and I can really adjust my game to grass courts a little.”
The match of the day saw Greece’s fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas complete a five-set victory over former U.S. Open winner Dominic Thiem 3-6 7-6(1) 6-2 6-7(5) 7-6(10-8) in match spread across two days.
He will need to make a quick recovery with Britain’s twice champion Andy Murray waiting in the second round on Thursday (06).
American wave
Tenth seed Frances Tiafoe led a wave of American men into the second round with 7-6(4) 6-3 6-4 win over China’s Wimbledon debutant Wu Yibing before compatriot Taylor Fritz completed a 6-4 2-6 4-6 7-5 6-3 victory over Yannick Hanfmann.
No American has won the men’s trophy since Pete Sampras bagged his seventh title at the major in 2000 but Ben Shelton, Tommy Paul, Christopher Eubanks and Marcos Giron all stayed in the hunt with first-round wins.
Russian third seed Daniil Medvedev overcame wildcard Arthur Fery in straight sets while sixth seed Holger Rune also dispatched a British opponent, George Loffhagen, in a match that had started on Tuesday.
Italian Jannik Sinner, the eighth seed, looked powerfully impressive with a clinical 7-5 6-1 6-2 defeat of Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman.
In the women’s draw there was a sizeable upset as Ukrainian youngster Marta Kostyuk battled back from losing the first set 6-0 to knock out Greek eighth seed Maria Sakkari.
She became only the third women’s player to beat a top-10 seed at Wimbledon in the professional era after losing the first set 6-0.
Other seeded players made progress though.
Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia, a semi-finalist at last month’s French Open, beat Yulia Putintseva from a set down while 17th seed Jelena Ostapenko crushed qualifier Greet Minnen.
Czech 10th seed Barbora Krejcikova comfortably beat British wildcard Heather Watson to reach the second round while Daria Kasatkina was the only other player to reach the women’s third round on schedule after thrashing Britain’s Jodie Burrage.
(Reuters)
