Wimbledon: Federer cruises into 3rd round

LONDON: Eight-time champion Roger Federer eased into the third round of Wimbledon on Thursday, beating British wild card Jay Clarke 6-1, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 to equal American legend Jimmy Connors’s record of 17 appearances in the last 32.
The 37-year-old Swiss great’s rival Rafael Nadal is unikely to have such an easy ride later on Thursday as he faces the fiery but talented Australian Nick Kyrgios.”I struggled to take care of business a bit from the baseline,” said Federer who has now reached the third round at the Slams for the 70th time.”Thankfully I played a pretty good breaker, I had some help from him as he gave me a couple of unforced errors.”Federer and Nadal’s half of the draw lost two of the potentially more awkward customers in big serving duo John Isner and Marin Cilic.Ninth-seeded Isner, who played in the epic semi-final last year with Kevin Anderson which lasted over six hours, fell in five sets to unseeded Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in just over three hours of play. (AFP)