Novak Djokovic has booked his place in round three of Wimbledon following a straightforward win over Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Djokovic swept aside his opponent taking the match in straight sets, 6-1 6-4 6-2.
The defending champion wasted little time getting going and broke his opponent in the second game before racing away with the first set in comfortable fashion inside half an hour.
Kokkinakis put up more resistance in the second set but was again made to rue an early break as Djokovic kept him at arms’ length.
It didn’t all go the Serb’s way as Kokkinakis stood firm in game nine, eventually converting his fourth game point forcing Djokovic to serve out the set.
The number one seed broke again in the first game of set three and looked set for victory after a Kokkinakis backhand into the net for 4-1.
Djokovic then held to move within a game of victory but Kokkinakis claimed some form of consolation to force his opponent to serve for the victory.
Djokovic duly obliged, albeit having to save a late break point, and faces now faces compatriot Miormir Kecmanoivic in round four.
“I’m very happy,” he said in his on-court interview. “Again, thanks for your support today for both players. Thank you for coming out. I’m very, very happy with my performance today.
“I thought I started off very well – very solid from the back of the court – made him work for every point that I managed to get his serve back in play. I tried to work him around the court, bring a lot of variety into the game.
“It was not easy to serve because of the wind – it was very swirly today on the court so it was tough to toss the ball – but I think from my side overall [it was] a really, really high quality performance and I’m very pleased.
“I must say that I’m quite pleased with the way I’ve raised the level of tennis in two days. Hopefully I can keep that trajectory – just getting better as the tournament progresses.
“Obviously, I’m just thinking about the next challenge and hopefully things will get better and better as I move on.
“Whenever the going gets tough, whenever you’re down on yourself or things are not as smooth and easy as you would like them to be [it helps] going back to that inner child and remembering why you started playing this sport, and of course, anything else that you manage to achieve [while] living your dream is a bonus, so I’m really blessed to be here now.”
