No.1 seed in the Gentlemen’s singles Novak Djokovic spent three hours and 17 minutes in seeing off world no.38 Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5) in their second round encounter at the 2014 Wimbledon on Wednesday.
It was Novak’s 40th match win at The Championships and his 11th victory in 12 meetings against the Czech.
Novak saved two break points in the ninth game of the opening set. He converted his third break/set point in the next game for 6-4.
A break in the sixth game of the second set was enough for Nole to take it 6-3.
The third set went into a tie-breaker. Stepanek looked down at 2-5, but stormed back to win it 7-5.
The similar scenario was seen in the fourth set. It was decided in a tie-breaker. This time Djokovic sealed the match at 7-5.
“I was two sets up and had break point chances and I should have closed it out in the third-set tie-break,” Novak said. “But credit to him for fighting. He performs really well on the big stage, loves to engage the crowd and is a great entertainer. It was a difficult one but I am glad I managed to hang in there mentally to win.”
Match statistics: aces (18-9), double faults (2-2), winners (54-51), unforced errors (24-27), total points won (153-135).
Novak takes a 6-1 H2H record into his third round match against world no.44 Gilles Simon on Friday.
The Frenchman beat Robin Haase in straights sets earlier in the day.
Photo: Getty Images
