Reigning French Open champion Stan Wawrinka cruised to the Round of 16 after a comfortable 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Fernando Verdasco.
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The 28-year-old stopped to sign a prosthetic leg from a man in the crowd. It’s at the stage where, if I want to be in the top five in the world, I need to work had. “I gave him my signature”.
“I hope I’m not playing my best”.
After a five-set slog in the opening round, Tomic enjoyed a straight sets 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the heat on Tuesday.
The Georgian-Chinese pair of Teymuraz Gabashvilli and Taiwan player Lu Yen-hsun have had their match with Daniel Nestor and Leander Paes postponed due to weather. I would say that I played the power game, that I served well, but I don’t yet have the speed, the anticipation or the balance.
No. 7 Milos Raonic of Canada had a bit of a tussle against 37-year-old Tommy Haas of Germany, who lives in Los Angeles.
He’ll face Richard Gasquet in the fourth round. “Kevin Anderson is a very good grasscourt player, the opponents will get tougher, better quality, higher ranked so I have to be on top of my game”.
On a roasting hot Court Two, Kyrgios dropped the first set after committing three double faults in the final game, but his game reached a new level thereafter as the man who beat Rafael Nadal at the All England Club previous year powered through to the last 16.
Court Two also hosted the other half of tennis’s golden couple with Sharapova’s boyfriend Grigor Dimitrov, the 11th seed, outlasting American Steve Johnson 7-6 (8), 6-2, 7-6 (2).
When Novak Djokovic arrived here this year without a warm-up event and with the wounds of another near miss at the French Open still fresh, the consensus was that it would take something special for him to bounce back by successfully defending his Wimbledon title. The most recent meeting was in the 2012 Indian Wells Masters, a match Djokovic won in straight sets.
Tomic, despite his unorthodox play and ability to change pace, was no match for the masterclass.
Swiss second seed Roger Federer waits for the world to begin his career in Wimbledon’s third Grand Slam and the only one built on herbal land.
Williams will next face big sister Venus in the fourth round.
The world No. 1 Djokovic drilled Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 in Nieminen’s final singles match at the All England Club.
Wawrinka, seeded No. 4, held serve throughout and beat Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic 6-3, 6-4, 7-5. “It was a pleasure to be the last one to play him at Wimbledon“.
The 27th seed was broken to trail 3-1 after a stunning Djokovic lob and an error from the German-born Australian opened up two break points, the first of which was clinically seized upon. When the chair umpire asked if he wanted to use one of his Hawk-Eye challenges, the Australian thought for a second before replying: “Actually, umm, yeah, maybe not”.
“Well, I just I guess try to get extra concentrated in those moments when I’m down Love-30 or a breakpoint”.
Exiting were fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori, who pulled out with a calf injury before his second-round match, and No. 7 Ana Ivanovic, who fell in straight sets to American qualifier Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
Kyrgios avoided punishment for shouting out “dirty scum” during his first-round win over Diego Schwartzman.
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Fellow one-hander, Gasquet, saw off Bulgarian Gergor Dimitrov 6-3 6-4 6-4 to set up a rematch with Kyrgios.
