For the second straight match at Wimbledon, Novak Djokovic navigated a tricky tie-break on his way to a straight-sets win at the All England Lawn Tennis Club. On Wednesday evening, the Serbian continued his bid for a fifth straight London title — and an eighth overall — with a 6-3, 7-6(4), 7-5 win against aggressive Aussie Jordan Thompson.
The victory was Djokovic’s 350th match win at a Grand Slam, making him the third player to reach that milestone after Roger Federer (369) and Serena Williams (365). An eighth Wimbledon title would also match Federer for the most men’s singles titles won at the event and make Djokovic the tournament’s oldest men’s champion in the Open Era.
The 36-year-old will require at least one more win to have a chance to leave Wimbledon as the top man in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. If he reaches the fourth round and outperforms current No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, the Serbian would return to the pinnacle of the men’s game. The pair is seeded to meet in the final, a mouth-watering matchup that would double as a straight shootout for World No. 1.
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Djokovic won his 30th consecutive grass-court match with a steely performance against Thompson on Centre Court. The Serbian broke serve twice in the match — once in the opening set and again in the final game — and did not face a break point despite the relentless attack of the Aussie, who won 46 of 73 net points (63 per cent).
“I don’t really know if I wanted to meet him this early in the tournament, but congratulations to him for a great performance today,” Djokovic said in his on-court interview. “He was a bit unlucky in the second set, he had some chances, but he played a great match. He deserves a big round of applause for sure.”
A finalist on the grass of ‘s-Hertogenbosch last month, Thompson battled back from two sets down to defeat Brandon Nakashima in the opening round and carried that confidence into his first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Djokovic. A dangerous opponent with his attacking game, Thompson constantly put the second seed under pressure and did not allow him to settle in from the baseline.
Still, Djokovic was watertight on serve and did just enough on return — in the face of 21 aces — to clinch the straight-sets win in two hours, 27 minutes. A Thompson double fault in the second-set tie-break surrendered the crucial mini-break, and a series of dipping returns at the feet of a charging Thompson helped Djokovic to the match-clinching break in the final set.
Next up for Djokovic is either Stan Wawrinka or 29th seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry, with the pair set to contest their second-round match on Thursday after rain wreaked havoc with the order of play both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Thompson, who fell to 2-5 at tour-level against Top 5 players, was denied his first win against an opponent of that status at a major.