(June 27, 2013) -- After witnessing one of the most tumultuous days in recent tennis history Wednesday, tennis fans were probably hoping day four at Wimbledon would be much calmer. That proved to be the case even with the first suspension of play due to rain at the All England Club.
With rain halting play on the outer courts late in the afternoon, top men's seed
Novak Djokovic found himself competing under the roof on Centre Court. American veteran
Bobby Reynolds, Djokovic's second round opponent, appeared to find inspiration under the roof's lights as he hung tough with the Serbian to forced a first-set tiebreak.
But Djokovic soon took command of that tiebreak and then the match. After securing the first set, Djokovic stepped up his level and eventually zoomed through to complete a 7-6(2), 6-3, 6-1 win.
With Reynolds' defeat and the earlier losses in the day by
James Blake and
Denis Kudla, it marked the first time that no American men were left to advance into the third round of Wimbledon since 1912.
Afterwards, Djokovic discussed his performance.
"Well, I was serving well throughout the whole match. Still haven't dropped my serve, which is encouraging fact. Credit to my opponent today for playing well when he was break points down. But I had a poor realization of my break point opportunities today. Hopefully that's going to get better in the next matches. But overall performance was good. "
Berdych, Gasquet Advance as Raonic Falls
Unlike yesterday, which saw a number of high seeded players like Roger Federer bow out early, morning action on day four was much kinder to those seeds in the top half of the draw.
No. 7 seed
Tomas Berdych, a former finalist a few years ago, got past Germany's
Daniel Brands 7-6(6), 6-4, 6-2. Despite dropping a third set tiebreak to Japan's
Go Soeda, No. 9 seed
Richard Gasquet steadied his game to earn a 6-0, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3 win.
Other seeded players advancing included No. 8
Juan Martin Del Potro, No. 12
Kei Nishikori and No. 23
Andreas Seppi, who won the first set 7-5 over
Michael Llodra before the Frenchman retired.
When France's
Paul-Henri Mathieu also retired against Spain's
Feliciano Lopez, that brought the total number of player retirements/walkovers at this year's Wimbledon to 12 -- equaling the all-time record set in the first round of the 2011 U.S. Open.
The biggest seed to fall was No. 17 seed
Milos Raonic who lost to
Igor Sijsling 7-5, 6-4, 7-6(4).
Dimitrov Left Hanging in Fifth-Set Duel.
Though he had the support of his girlfriend
Maria Sharapova, who watched in the stands, that didn't help Bulgaria's
Grigor Dimitrov from finding an end today in his five-set duel with Slovenia's
Grega Zemlja. Both men will return to Court 3 Friday in a do-or-die contest, with Dimitrov serving down 3-6, 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-4, 9-8.
With the match entering advantage scoring in the fifth set, rain halted play, forcing the match to be suspended until Friday.
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(Photo Credit: Stephen White/CameraSport) |