Djokovic made to sweat by Stepanek

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  • Tough day: Djokovic had to dig deep to defeat Stepanek.

    Djokovic nearly paid the price for not playing any matches on grass coming into Wimbledon as he was tested by Radek Stepanek before winning 6-4, 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-6(5).

    The Serb was in control of the match before he allowed the 35-year-old Stepanek to get back in, but was happy to finish him off in the end.

    “Before the match I was more tense, knowing that Radek can produce great tennis on this surface,” said Djokovic, who is a good friend of the Czech.

    “We practice a lot together, maybe we should cut that down, he knows my game quite well,” he added laughing.

    The first set was an even affair but Djokovic got his hands on two set points as Stepanek was serving at 4-5.

    The Czech saved both with some aggressive net rushes but Djokovic broke and took the set on his third attempt with a great backhand down the line passing shot winner.

    The top seed was soon two sets up and it looked like it might be all over when he led 4-2 in the third set tiebreak but he stumbled both literally and figuratively and Stepanek struck back to take the breaker and force a fourth set.

    The fourth set inched towards a tie-break but not before Djokovic gave the world a lesson in fair play.

    The Serb was serving a very tight game at 5-5 and after finally getting an advantage point, Stepanek hit a big winner that clipped the baseline but was called out.

    The Czech challenged and when Hawk-Eye showed he was right, umpire Carlos Bernardes called to replay the point but Djokovic chose to concede the point instead and the game went back to deuce.

    “For me it’s just natural. If I feel like I had no chance to play that ball of course I would concede the point. I think it’s fair play. It’s something that I would expect my opponent to do for me,” said Djokovic.

    In the tie-break, the drama reached epic heights when Djokovic hit a forehand passing shot winner on match point but Stepanek challenged it and then sank to his knees praying it was out.

    But it was on the line and the pair shared a huge embrace as Djokovic moved on to the third round, where he faces Frenchman Gilles Simon.

    Earlier, Andy Murray offered no mercy to Slovenian world No92 Blaz Rola, serving him a 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 drubbing in 84 minutes.

    The Scot won exactly double the number of points his opponent managed to set up a third round with Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, whom he had practiced with in Valencia on clay earlier in the season.

    “I practiced with him quite a lot,” said Murray of the big-hitting Spaniard. “He’s a very good player. He won the tournament last week on the grass in Holland. He doesn’t play like a lot of the Spanish guys. He plays very flat. The grass courts suit his game pretty well.”

    No7 seed David Ferrer was on the receiving end of 77 winners from a fiery Andrey Kuznetsov, who sent the two-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist packing 6-7(5), 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

    The defeat ended Ferrer’s streak of making 17 consecutive third rounds at majors while Kuznetsov has made it through to the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in eight appearances.

    Ferrer had pulled out of last week’s s-Hertogenbosch with a stomach illness which he picked up during Roland Garros and had come to Wimbledon with no matches on grass.

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