Novak Djokovic cruised into the Wimbledon third round here Thursday as former champion Lleyton Hewitt was denied an upset victory in a thrilling five-set duel with fifth seed Robin Soderling.
Serbian second seed Djokovic — who has lost only one match all year — maintained his red-hot form with a ruthless straight sets dismissal of South Africa’s Kevin Anderson, winning 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in just under two hours. Djokovic, who is seeded to face six-time champion Roger Federer in the semi-finals, had too much class for his plucky opponent, dominating him at both the baseline and the net.
“I served well, I played well, I returned really well. That was the key,” said Djokovic, who faces either Cypriot number 32 seed Marcos Baghdatis or Italy’s Andreas Seppi in the third round.
“Every tennis player is looking for perfection all the time, trying to play the best possible tennis. “Even though I may be hard on myself sometimes I’m satisfied with my performance,” added Djokovic, who could become world number one over the next 10 days if defending champion Rafael Nadal does not retain his crown. While Djokovic blasted his way into the last 64 of the men’s singles, Sweden’s Soderling was given a punishing examination by Hewitt on Centre Court before finally prevailing 6-7 (5/7), 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4. It was the first time in Soderling’s career that he had recovered after dropping the opening two sets, a psychological millstone that the 26-year-old was delighted to rid himself of. Soderling said the key to his come-from-behind win was a refusal to panic as Hewitt surged into a two-set lead with some inspired play early on. “You just have to take it one point at a time,” Soderling said. “But I felt that if I could raise my game a little bit I would have a chance.” Soderling now faces either Australian youngster Bernard Tomic or Russia’s Igor Andreev in the next round. But it was a disappointing loss for Hewitt, whose world ranking plunged to a 13-year low of 130
earlier this month following a miserable sequence of results. In other matches, Argentinian 24th seed Juan Martin Del Potro came from behind to down Olivier Rochus of Belgium in four sets, 6-7 (7/9), 6-1, 6-0, 6-4. The biggest upset of the day saw Lu Yen-Hsun — who became the first Taiwanese man to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final here last year — down fiery Serbian 13th seed Viktor Troicki. Lu won 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, 6-4 and will face French 15th seed Michael Llodra of France for a place in the last 16. The 27-year-old Lu, who defeated three-time finalist Andy Roddick in the fourth round in 2010, had to face an agonising 30-minute rain delay before he could wrap up victory. The 27-year-old said afterwards Asian players had taken inspiration from the victory of China’s Li Na at the French Open earlier this month. “It’s a positive for me and for Asia. It’s different for men, of course, but Li’s win shows what can be done and that it is possible to reach a major final,” said Lu. “Nothing is impossible.”
