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Djokovic, Murray eye Wimbledon third round


By AFP
Published : 29 Jun 2022 08:04 PM

Australia's Thanasi Kokkinakis attempts to demolish the "brick wall" of Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon on Wednesday while Andy Murray needs to defuse the big-serving threat of John Isner.

Six-time champion Djokovic, chasing a 21st Grand Slam title, defeated Kokkinakis in their only previous meeting at the French Open in 2015. The 26-year-old Australian still bears the scars even though it was seven years ago.

"I'm going to swing free hopefully and play my game. He's a brick wall, so you kind of got to beat him," said the world number 79. "He's not going to beat himself."

Kokkinakis won his first match at Wimbledon at the third attempt when he saw off Poland's Kamil Majchrzak on Monday. The Australian's career has been stop-start with 18 months missed due a shoulder injury between 2015 and 2016 and all of 2020 because of mononucleosis. However, he is not one to suffer stage fright.

At the Miami Masters in 2018 he made light of his lowly status as a 175th-ranked qualifier to stun defending champion Roger Federer. Earlier this year, Kokkinakis teamed up with Nick Kyrgios to win the Australian Open men's doubles title.