Novak Djokovic raced to a 6-0, 3-0 lead, then held firm the rest of the way as he opened his bid for a third straight Wimbledon title and fifth straight Grand Slam championship with a straight-set win over Britain’s James Ward on Monday.
Advertisement
“The amount of finals he’s played, there’s been barely any matches that he’s played that you’d call upsets in the last, I don’t know, 15, 16 months, since Doha a year ago. It was a wonderful experience”.
Djokovic now holds all four majors and is targeting becoming the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to complete the calendar Grand Slam, a feat only achieved three times in the sport’s history.
The 25-year-old said: “It’s ridiculous really”.
“I voted out, I’m not fussed about saying it”, Ward said.
Djokovic opened the second with a service break as well, but Ward fought back, taking the set to a tie-breaker. “I think in particular I usually do throughout my whole career have been able to, like, learn a lot, to come off, to come back a much better player”, Williams continued.
You are James Ward, aged 29, and been a journeyman tennis pro since 2006, ranked number five in Britain, but 177 in the world.
Djokovic saved two break points when serving at 5-5, a slip up from the world number one at that stage would have made proceedings interesting indeed. He picked up a hat thrown from the stands and put it on.
With 12 majors, Djokovic is only behind Federer (17), Nadal (14) and Pete Sampras (14) in Grand Slams.
“But there are no guarantees that even if I was fresh that I would have won in Paris”.
His semi-final loss to Germany’s Alexander Zverev in Halle was his first defeat to a teenager in 10 years.
Monday’s Centre Court schedule also features French Open women’s champion Garbine Muguruza against Italy’s Camila Giorgi, and seven-time men’s victor Roger Federer against Guido Pella of Argentina. Mannarino has won six of his last eight matches on grass. Murray managed to take the first set from Djokovic in the finals, but the Serb quickly came back to win the next three and the title.
Elsewhere on day one at the All England Club, Venus Williams, who has equalled Amy Frazier’s record of appearing in 71 Grand Slams, is through after she ousted Croatian Donna Vekic 7-6, 6-4. He has played his best tennis normally when he’s been in the biggest occasions.
“Managing to win the trophy that I always dreamed of winning, sharing it obviously with my family, the team, the people closest in my life, it’s truly a blessing”.
Croatian ninth seed and former US Open victor Marin Cilic saw off Brian Baker of the United States 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 and Spanish 13th seed David Ferrer was a 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 victor over Israel’s Dudi Sela.
His first serve percentage dwindled at around 30 per cent mark throughout the opening set, which was concluded with another double fault, and suddenly the prospect of a first match on Centre Court for the Londoner was looking rather daunting.
Advertisement
The tournament ended early for the 21st seed Philipp Kohlschreiber. Kevin Anderson, a South African seeded 20th, lost later in five sets to Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.
