Djokovic beats Evans in straight sets; Andreeva, Navarro reach 3rd round

LONDON: Seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic showed that he remains a real threat for a record-extending 25th Grand Slam title at the age of 38 with a clinical 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 destruction of home hope Dan Evans on Centre Court on Thursday.

The Serb continues to rage against the dying of the light and, having identified the grass of Wimbledon as his best chance of adding to his extraordinary tally, showed exactly why in a superb all-round performance where he looked as sharp and fit as at any time in his career.

He was never really troubled on serve all afternoon while wildcard Evans had to scramble for almost everything on his – saving nine first-set break points before eventually succumbing on the 10th.

Djokovic continued to dominate as Evans, who beat him in their only previous meeting on clay four years ago, saw his tame sliced backhands repeatedly crashed back past him as the sixth seed romped home.

Since losing in the quarterfinals in 2017, he has reached the last six finals, winning the first four but losing the last two to Carlos Alcaraz, and it would be a brave man to bet against him making it seven in a row on Thursday’s evidence.

“He (Evans) can cause a lot of trouble if you’re not on top of your game, which I think I was to be honest from the very beginning,” Djokovic said.

“Technically, tactically I knew exactly what I needed to do and I executed perfectly. Sometimes you have these kind of days, where everything goes your way, everything flows and it’s good to be in the shoes and holding a racket on a day like this.”

The tone was set almost from the start, with Djokovic racing through his service games and Evans having to fight for everything.

Roared on by a hopeful home crowd the 35-year-old Brit saved four break points in a marathon fourth game, three in the sixth and another two in the eighth, before Djokovic finally broke at the 10th attempt.

Evans was ranked as high as 21st in the world two years ago, but he has plummeted to 154th and his backhand slice was totally ineffective as Djokovic teed off on it with unerring accuracy.

The match soon had an inevitability about it as the Serb moved seamlessly through the second set and then raced to a 5-0 lead in the third before Evans finally forced two break points, only for Djokovic to snuff out the danger.

It put him into the third round for the 19th time - a men’s record in the Open era - at a tournament he loves above all others.

Seventh seed Mirra Andreeva blasted her way into the third round at Wimbledon on Thursday with a 6-1, 7-6(4) victory over Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti and thanked her coach, former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez, for making her work hard.

The 18-year-old Russian was the only teenager from six women’s starters to have made it through to the second round and she looked sure-footed on Wimbledon’s grass, the surface where she hit the headlines aged 16 with a whirlwind race to the fourth round in 2023.

She completely dominated her 26-year-old opponent in the first set on Thursday using her big serve, heavy slice and neat net play to wrap it up in 23 minutes.

But she had a fight on her hands in the second as Bronzetti, ranked a lowly 63, found her stride and range in the second. Andreeva eventually triumphed on her second match point in the tiebreak, with a fine forehand volley winner.

Andreeva will play Hailey Baptiste of the United States, who beat Canada’s Victoria Mboko on Thursday, in the third round of the singles on Saturday.

With temperatures reaching more than 30 degrees Celsius at Wimbledon this week, players could be forgiven for wanting to reduce their time on court, but not American Emma Navarro who wants to see the women’s tour play best-of-five set matches.

The 10th seed was seemingly hungry for more minutes on the sun-soaked grass, having taken little more than an hour to seal her place in the third round with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Veronika Kudermetova.

Former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina barely needed to shift out of second gear as the 11th seed motored into the third round of the grasscourt Grand Slam with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Greek Maria Sakkari.

Rybakina was gifted a break in the opening game when Sakkari produced three successive double faults and the 2022 Wimbledon champion held firm from there to wrap up the opening set with minimum fuss in front of a sparse crowd on Court One.

Taylor Fritz overcame a bloodied elbow to win 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (0), 4-6, 6-3 on No. 1 Court on Wednesday. Agencies

Also Read: "We will all miss you": Cristiano Ronaldo mourns demise of Portugal footballer Diogo Jota

Also Watch: