ATP Tour

Djokovic steps up a gear, denies Tsitsipas for R3 spot at Wimbledon

Novak Djokovic and Stefanos Tsitsipas unlocked the grass chapter of their rivalry on Wednesday night at Wimbledon, but the story unfolded in familiar fashion.

Having survived a hard-fought four-set opener against Wu Yibing, Djokovic raised his level to defeat Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 and secure his place in the third round of the grass-court major for the 20th time. The seven-time Wimbledon champion was sharp in every department, denying Tsitsipas in their first meeting on grass and extending his lead in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series to 13-2.

As he moved toward victory, Djokovic produced a spectacular game to break the Greek’s serve, ignite the Centre Court crowd and earn the chance to serve out the match. The 39-year-old Serbian struck three winners in the game, including a delicate lob that dropped perfectly inside the baseline, before closing out the contest in one hour, 38 minutes.

"You feel very happy, satisfied and joyful on the court when you are playing this way," Djokovic said in his on-court interview. "Once you get the momentum going... That game when I went 5-2 up was one of the best return games I've played in a while. I just went for my shots. I was a bit more relaxed, a little less tension in my head."

Tsitsipas has endured injury setbacks and inconsistent form in recent seasons, arriving at Wimbledon as the No. 87 player in the PIF ATP Rankings. It is a stark contrast to the player who reached two major finals and famously led Djokovic by two sets in the 2021 Roland Garros championship match.

There were still flashes of brilliance from the Greek, however. In the second game of the second set, Tsitsipas produced a stunning around-the-net forehand winner that left Djokovic scrambling and moved him to 0/30 on return. Yet Djokovic immediately responded with two unreturned serves and back-to-back aces to escape trouble.

That sequence neatly captured the tone of the match on Centre Court, where Djokovic repeatedly used his experience and composure to extinguish any threat. The seventh seed also brought the crowd to its feet by somehow blocking back two seemingly certain Tsitsipas smashes before regrouping to break serve for a 5-4 lead in the second set.

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Djokovic struck 33 winners against just seven unforced errors and did not surrender serve throughout Wednesday night’s performance. His reward is a third-round clash with Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech.

Earlier in the day, the 25th-seeded Rinderknech defeated 6’8” American Martin Damm 6-4, 7-6(1), 6-3 to reach the Wimbledon third round for the second consecutive year. Although facing seven-time champion Djokovic presents a formidable challenge, Rinderknech has already shown he can produce major upsets, having earned the biggest win of his career against World No. 3 Alexander Zverev on Centre Court last year.

Rinderknech, who has yet to face Djokovic, arrived at this year’s Wimbledon with an 0-2 grass-court record after opening-round defeats in both ’s-Hertogenbosch and Queen’s Club.