Djokovic steams into round three after routine Kudla win

Novak Djokovic reached the third round of Wimbledon for the 14th time after he beat America’s Denis Kudla.

The world number one Djokovic made light work of his opponent who has only gone past the second round just once, when he reached reach the fourth round at SW19 in 2015. The match lasted just over 90 minutes as Djokovic cruised to a 6-3 6-2 6-2 victory.

These two had never met before, and it was the Serb who surged ahead early on. A double fault and a fortunate net cord helped Djokovic break the American serve instantly, taking a 2-0 lead in the first set.

Playing on Centre Court for the first time, the nerves seemed to get to Kudla, as he hit a series of loose shots allowing Djokovic to double break. A comfortable hold gave Novak a 4-0 first set lead.

Suddenly Kudla began to look more relaxed, and out of nowhere held serve twice and broke the 2018 champion’s serve with a beautiful cross court forehand winner to bring the set back to 5-3. But a focused Djokovic closed the set 6-3 at the second time of asking.

After managing to save break points in the first game of the second set, the American underdog went onto lose 15 of the next 17 points, finding himself a double break down at 4-1. And despite Kudla breaking the Serbs serve again, Djokovic broke a third time in the set to take it 6-2.

Djokovic has not lost a match at Wimbledon since he retired due to injury against Tomas Berdych in the 2017 quarter final. And he had no intention of letting that up today as he started the third set at full force breaking Kudla instantly. And a successive break to go 5-2 up allowed the four time champion to serve the match out.

Next up for Djokovic is Polish youngster Hubert Hurkacz who has beaten both the 32nd seed Dusan Lajovic and Leonardo Mayer in four sets to progress to his first ever Grand Slam third round. The pair met for the first time at Roland Garros tin the first round this year when Djokovic comfortably won 6-4 6-2 6-2.

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