Zaballos fails to trouble Serb
In his ninth tournament back after right elbow surgery, Novak Djokovic has played down the significance of a left knee issue that required treatment late in his second round defeat of Horacio Zaballos. The 12-time Grand Slam champion started brilliantly but finished slightly gingerly, two games after taking a medical time-out.
“It was a bad move during the point and it affected my knee a little bit. Yeah, I felt it all the way to the end of the match, basically, last couple of games,’’ Djokovic said after his emphatic 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 defeat of the 126th-ranked Argentine.
“I've been doing check-ups now. It seems like it's nothing major. Hopefully, you know, tomorrow I'll see on the practice session how it feels. Hopefully it's going to be fine.
“When I say 'not major,' if it was major I'd be pulling out from the tournament. What I'm saying is that it's most likely a twitch, you know, in the muscle or something like this, that has affected the knee a little bit. Hopefully it's nothing that will concern me, so to say, that I'll be able to perform.’’
Djokovic has been doing so at a high level so far, and against Zeballos hit just four unforced errors and 15 aces in one hour, 31 minutes to reach the Wimbledon third round for the 10th consecutive year.
“Obviously I'm very pleased with the way I played both matches, especially today,'' he said. "I thought my serve was working really well. Playing on grass, obviously having 10-plus aces in a match, it's not a common feeling that I get to experience a lot. It definitely helps in the game itself. It helps me relax in other parts of my game.
“I felt I used it as a weapon today, had a lot of free points on the first serve. I'm just hoping that I can build from these two matches and keep on going in the right direction.’’
Djokovic is yet to set foot on the Centre Court that hosted his treble of triumphs in the gentlemen’s singles, in 2011, 2014 and 2015, yet his impressive form so far has been at odds with his unusually low profile and current world ranking of No.21.
On Tuesday on No.1 Court, Djokovic thrashed American Tennys Sandgren for the loss of just six games. On Thursday on No.2 Court, Zeballas could do no better.
Clean and clinical
The elastic Serb said he had no issues with the scheduling. “I was enjoying it. I've never played on this new Court 2. I played on the old Court 2, that is Court 3 right now. Yeah, long time ago,’’ he said.
“It was interesting. I think what was different is the walk to the court. Obviously the crowd, everybody cheering you on, wishing you luck, after the match congratulating you. That was quite special, quite different. I haven't experienced that in a while in Wimbledon.’’
In May, Djokovic plunged from the top 20 for the first time in 11 years, and his No.12 seeding is his lowest ever at the All England Club. But this was a clean and clinical performance, as he feasted on his opponent’s leftie serve while winning 41 of 46 points on his own first serve.
In last year’s third round, he was forced to retire against Tomas Berdych with the season-ending elbow injury that has proved so problematic, and required surgery after his fourth round loss at January’s Australian Open. His best result at a major in the past 12 months has been at Roland-Garros, where he was eliminated in the quarter-finals by Italian Marco Cecchinato.
Another injury problem would be untimely, for the green shoots of a renaissance that sprouted during his recent run to the final at Queen’s Club - where he held a match point before losing to Marin Cilic - had been starting to flourish at the biggest grass court championship of all.
