WIMBLEDON, June 30: The rematch of the 2018 Wimbledon final ended with another straight-set win for Novak Djokovic.
The top-ranked Serb delivered what he called an “almost flawless performance” in beating Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 on Centre Court to reach the third round.
Djokovic never faced a break point and broke for 5-3 in the third set with a forehand winner before converting his second match point when Anderson sent a shot long.
It was the two-time defending champion’s 16th straight match win at Wimbledon.
Anderson also lost the 2017 U.S. Open final but has slipped out of the top 100 in the rankings.
John Isner played another five-setter on Wimbledon’s Court 18 but couldn’t quite create another epic this time. Isner was broken in the final game to lose 7-6 (5), 2-6, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-4 to Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan in the first round.
They were playing on the same court where Isner defeated Nicolas Mahut 70-68 in the fifth set in 2010, the longest match in the history of tennis. The rules at Wimbledon have since been changed to prevent such marathon fifth sets.
It was Nishioka’s first win at Wimbledon after losing in the first round three times.
Denis Shapovalov reached the third round at Wimbledon for the first time after his second-round opponent Pablo Andujar pulled out with a rib injury ahead of their match.
The 10th-seeded Shapovalov overcame Philipp Kohlschreiber in five sets on Tuesday. He next faces either two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray or qualifier Oscar Otte.
Shapovalov is playing Wimbledon for the fourth time but had only got past the first round once before, in 2018. The Canadian reached the quarterfinals of last year’s U.S Open for his best Grand Slam result.
Andujar beat Roger Federer in Geneva this year and ousted Dominic Thiem in the first round of the French Open. He also needed five sets to get past Pierre-Hugues Herbert on Tuesday.
Queen’s Club tournament champion Matteo Berrettini remained unbeaten on grass this season by defeating Guido Pella 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 in the first round at Wimbledon. The hard-serving Berrettini finished with 20 aces against Pella and clinched the win with a running forehand passing shot.
The seventh-seeded Italian became the first player to win Queen’s on his debut since Boris Becker in 1985 and is viewed as an outside contender at this year’s Wimbledon.
He reached the semifinals at the 2019 U.S. Open and is coming off a quarterfinal run at the French Open, where he lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.
However, Berrettini has never been past the round of 16 at the All England Club.
Former U.S. Open runner-up Kei Nishikori also advanced. He beat Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 for his 100th Grand Slam match win.
Nick Kyrgios finished off No. 21 seed Ugo Humbert 9-7 in the fifth set of their suspended first-round match at Wimbledon.
Alize Cornet upset Bianca Andreescu for the second time in two weeks by beating the fifth-seeded Canadian 6-2, 6-1 in the first round at Wimbledon. Cornet broke the former U.S. Open champion five times and sealed the victory by chasing down a shot and hitting a lob that landed just inside the baseline on match point. Cornet also beat Andreescu in Berlin two weeks ago.
French Open runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova cruised into the second round with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Ana Bogdan. The 16th-seeded Pavlyuchenkova took advantage of 16 unforced errors from Bogdan to win in under an hour. She reached her first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros before losing in three sets to Barbora Krejcikova.
Camila Giorgi and 19th-seeded Karolina Muchova also advanced to the second round. (AP)
