Wimbledon, Djokovic cannibal against Serbian players: Kecmanovic is warned

He is a growing Novak Djokovic, the one we have admired at Wimbledon so far. After a four-set victory against Soon-woo Kwon in the first round, the world number 3 brilliantly overtook Thanasi Kokkinakis, with a success matured in two hours with only eight games lost in a whole match (6-1 6-4 6-2). The reigning champion is fueling, pushed by a scoreboard that has emptied on his side with the exits of Casper Ruud and Hubi Hurkacz: with the exception of a possible quarter-final against Carlos Alcaraz (or, who knows, Jannik Sinner), the Serbian could have an easy path to the final. The next opponent will be Miomir Kecmanovic, seeded number 25.

AGAINST THE SERBIANS

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All-Serbian challenge in the third round, then. Which, on paper, shouldn’t be a problem for Djokovic: Nole has played 31 career games against fellow countrymen and has only lost four times, the most recent way back in 2012 in the quarter-finals in Madrid against Janko Tipsarevic, who managed to beat Nole on two occasions. The other Serbian players able to win against Djokovic were Viktor Troicki in Umag in 2007 and Filip Krajinovic in the semifinal in Belgrade in 2010, but due to Novak’s retirement in the second set. At the Slam level, Djokovic has a record of four victories and no defeats against fellow countrymen: three of these came against Troicki (US Open 2010, Australian Open 2011 and the round of 16 of Wimbledon 2012) and one against Tipsarevic, in the quarter-finals in Flushing Meadows in 2011.

PREVIOUS

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Curiosity: Djokovic and Kecmanovic should have faced each other in the first round in Melbourne this year, before Nole was expelled from Australia for the known events related to the vaccine. The two have played against twice, both in Belgrade and in the quarter-finals: 6-1 6-3 last year and 4-6 6-3 6-3 this year, obviously in favor of Djokovic. In short, Kecmanovic needs a company and the bookmakers give little chance to the number 30 in the world, who in the first two rounds beat John Millman and Alejando Tabilo in four sets. The class of ’99 will play for the first time in the third round of Wimbledon.