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2017 Wimbledon: Novak Djokovic cruises into fourth round

By The Sports Xchange
Novak Djokovic hits return during the 2017 Wimbledon championships in London. Photo by Hugo Philpott/UPI
Novak Djokovic hits return during the 2017 Wimbledon championships in London. Photo by Hugo Philpott/UPI | License Photo

Second-seeded Novak Djokovic was in top form Saturday as he won in straight sets to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon.

The three-time Wimbledon champion from Serbia beat Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-4 6-1 7-6 (7-2), reeling off nine games in a row at one stage on Centre Court at the All England Club in London.

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Djokovic will next face Adrian Mannarino, who defeated fellow Frenchman and No. 15 seed Gael Monfils 7-6 (3), 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 in three hours, 30 minutes.

Seven-time Wimbledon champion and No. 3 seed Roger Federer of Switzerland was playing 27th-seeded Mischa Zverev of Germany in Saturday's final match on Centre Court.

Djokovic, who extended his head-to-head against Gulbis to 7-1, is through to the fourth round at Wimbledon for the 10th time. He picked up his 236th win at a major.

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Djokovic's lone meeting with Mannarino came at at the All England Club last year, with the Serbian scoring a straight-sets win in the second round.

Canada's sixth-seeded Milos Raonic, last year's runner-up at Wimbledon, advanced to the second week by beating 25th-seeded Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain 7-6 (3), 6-4, 7-5.

Raonic fired 21 aces and won 83 percent of his service points during the two-hour, 21-minute match. He finished with 55 winners and 26 unforced errors.

"I did a lot of things well today," Raonic said. "I was efficient on my serve, created a bunch of opportunities. I started getting better and better there. Maybe at the beginning I wasn't controlling the situation enough. But as the match went on, I felt like I was dictating more so from the baseline."

Raonic, who lost to Andy Murray in last year's final, is into the fourth round for the third time in four years.

American Sam Querrey, seeded No. 24, took only four minutes on court Saturday to beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga France 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 1-6, 7-5.

The third-round match was suspended Friday by darkness after 2 hours, 54 minutes with Querrey leading 6-5 in the fifth set. Tsonga served first upon resumption of the match, but Querrey immediately broke to seal the victory.

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"I told myself to try to be aggressive," said Querrey, who reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals last year. "On the last game I had a little bit of the house money since I was returning first and I kind of had a game to play with. I think that helped."

Querrey made headlines at the All England Club last year when he stunned Djokovic in the third round.

"Grass is probably my favorite surface. Wimbledon is my favorite tournament," Querrey said. "And for the first time in my career to have back-to-back years where I have made the second week is exciting."

Querrey will next face South Africa's Kevin Anderson, whom he leads 7-5 in head-to-head series.

"(Anderson has) one of the best serves in the game," Querrey said. "A lot of times when you play a big server you actually need to focus on your own serve more, because sometimes you can take it for granted that I'm just going to hold and you'll be good. It's going to come down to a couple points here or there."

Dudi Sela of Israel became the ninth men's player to retire from a match at this year's tournament, stopping his third-round match because of a right adductor strain against 13th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria while trailing 6-1, 6-1.

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Dimitrov, a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2014, will next face either Federer or Zverev.

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