Wimbledon: Top-seeded Novak Djokovic advanced to the third round at Wimbledon with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia. The six-time Wimbledon champion has won the past three men’s singles titles at the All England Club and is now gunning for his seventh title. Roger Federer with eight titles holds the record for the most number of titles at the All England Club.
However, French Open runner-up Casper Ruud did not find the grass to his liking. Ruud, who was seeded third, lost to Ugo Humbert of France 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 4-6 in the second round to become the highest ranked player to bow out of the tournament.
The third-ranked Djokovic, No. 4 Nadal, No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas and No. 7 Carlos Alcaraz are the only players in the top 11 remaining in the draw. Top-ranked Daniil Medvedev is out because of a ban on Russians over the war in Ukraine, No. 2 Alexander Zverev is injured, No. 8 Andrey Rublev of Russia is also banned, No. 9 Felix Auger-Aliassime and No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz lost, and No 11 Matteo Berrettini withdrew after testing positive for Covid-19.
In the women’s tournament, second-seeded Anett Kontaveit and 2017 Wimbledon champion Garbiñe Muguruza were also eliminated. Kontaveit lost to Juke Niemeier of Germany 4-6, 0-6, while the ninth-seeded Muguruza was beaten by Greet Minnen 4-6, 0-6.
Kontaveit said she had Covid-19 in recent months and has struggled to get her energy back.
“I had it a couple, two months ago, I think, or something like that. Then I tried to come back very quickly. I started training. It was low intensity, but I was still training every day. I think that was where I went wrong,” the 26-year-old Estonian said. “Just thinking back at it, I probably should have given myself more time to recover,” she added.
Among the winners were No. 6 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, who beat Tereza Martincova 7-6 (7-1), 7-5 in a match that started Tuesday, No 8 Jessica Pegula of the United States and No 12 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.