London: Former champion Novak Djokovic advanced to the fourth round, while third-ranked German Alexander Zverev suffered yet another upset loss in a Grand Slam tennis tournament, losing 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 to Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis in the third round of Wimbledon.
Three-time champion Djokovic silenced a raucous centre crowd as he rallied from a set down to defeat home-crowd favourite Kyle Edmund 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 and advance to the Round-of-16.
Djokovic lost a tight first set in which he was broken once and failed to capitalise on any of his three break-point chances against an in-form Edmund, who narrowly outplayed the 12-time Grand Slam champion from the baseline.
But he got his return game going at the start of the second set and won around 43 percent of the British player’s service points the rest of the way.
Before sealing the victory, the No.12 seed had to deal with the frustration of a botched decision by the chair umpire.
With Edmund serving at 3-3, 15-40 in the fourth set, the Serbian approached the net and executed a drop volley that Edmund failed to reach on one bounce despite flailing at the ball with his racquet and knocking it close to the line on the other side of the net.
The referee, however, ruled that he did get to the ball in time. Despite Djokovi’s arguments and even though the replay clearly showed the ball bounced twice, Edmund was awarded the point.
Next up for Djokovic will be 22-year-old Russian Karen Khachanov, who rallied from two sets down to defeat American Francis Tiafoe 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2, 6-1 Saturday.
Other results
Kei Nishikori bt Nick Kyrgios 6-1, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4
Jiri vesely bt Fabio Fognini 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
Kerber dismisses Osaka
Angelique Kerber of Germany dismissed Naomi Osaka of Japan 6-2, 6-4 in just 63 minutes in the women’s singles third round of the Wimledon tennis tournament here Saturday as the Centre Court was unusually bare due to spectators leaving to watch the World Cup football match between England and Sweden. Among others Aliaksandra thrashed Daria Gavrilova 6-3, 6-1 while Dominika Cibulkova spanked Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-2. Belinda Bencic defeated Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) and Jelena Ostapanko pummeled Vitalia Diatchenko 6-0, 6-4.