Second seed moving ominously into form after straight-sets triumph
Sunday 9 July 2017 21:14, UK
Novak Djokovic overcame a slow start to keep alive his hopes of a fourth Wimbledon title with a straightforward victory over Latvia's Ernests Gulbis.
On a glorious day at a sun-soaked All England Club, the 2011, 2013 and 2014 champion rallied from falling a break of serve behind early in the first set to seal his place in the fourth round with a 6-4 6-1 7-6 triumph over the world No 589.
Djokovic is without a Grand Slam title since the French Open last year, which saw him become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four major titles, but he is moving back to his best and is yet to drop a set in the first week of the tournament.
A title in Eastbourne last weekend, and the presence of Andre Agassi and Mario Ancic in his corner look to have revitalised the Serb who appears to be moving ominously towards the form that saw him dominate for so long before his recent slump.
Gulbis entered Saturday's encounter as the lowest-ranked player to reach the third round of a Grand Slam since Richard Krajicek at Wimbledon in 2002 but in seeing off Juan Martin Del Potro had served notice of his threat.
The 28-year old Latvian also has quarter and semi-finals to his name at the French Open and he showed what he was about in making a fast start against the 12-time Grand Slam champion.
But a run of nine consecutive games from Djokovic broke the challenge of Gulbis, who raised his level in the third set before Djokovic ran away, with the tie-breaker to seal a Monday fourth-round date with Adrian Mannarino.
Gulbis started fast, breaking Djokovic in his second service game thanks to a couple of crunching winners and he comfortably moved to a 4-2 lead with some booming first serves before the turnaround began.
Having had little chance on the Latvian's serve until the seventh game when he forced three break points, Djokovic made his breakthrough and never looked back as a double fault handled the break back - a break he greeted with a first roar towards his box.
The Serb held serve with little trouble before breaking Gulbis again giving him a fourth straight game and with it the opening set, the first set the Latvian had dropped in the Championships.
That seemed to suck the life out of Gulbis who quickly fell behind in the second, tamely surrendering his opening service game and when another untimely double fault from the Latvian handed Djokovic a fourth break, the writing looked to be on the wall.
With Djokovic leading 6-2 4-0, Gulbis mustered his first threat in ages to force two break points but four straight points allowed Djokovic to hold on before being handed two set points on the Gulbis serve.
All four were fended off to the delight of the Centre Court crowd as Gulbis halted Djokovic's run of nine straight games but it only delayed the inevitable as Djokovic closed out the set.
The former world No 1, benefited from Martin Klizan's injury withdrawal in the first round and he saw another opponent call for the trainer as Gulbis required treatment on a side injury.
With Gulbis galvanised the pair traded the opening ten games of the set with big serves and spectacular winners and it wasn't until the 11th game that anyone even looked like breaking but Gulbis somehow clung on before Djokovic claimed the match by losing just two points in the tie-break.
Next up for Djokovic will be Mannarino after the unseeded 29-year-old won an epic five-set affair against fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils on Court No 12.
The world No 51 rallied from 2-1 down to claim the final two sets in impressive fashion for a 6-7 6-4 5-7 6-3 6-3 triumph and a place in the fourth round of a Grand Slam for only the second time having reached the last 16 at Wimbledon in 2013.
Djokovic won their only previous encounter, in the second round at Wimbledon last year, without dropping a set, but having added Monfils to the scalp of Queen's champion Feliciano Lopez, Mannarino should represent the Serb's first considerable threat.
Also in that quarter 2010 Wimbledon runner-up and last year's semi-finalist Tomas Berdych reached the second week for a ninth time beating David Ferrer 6-3 6-4 6-3.
The 31-year-old, who lost to Rafael Nadal in the final seven years ago, will next face Dominic Thiem, the Austrian waltzing past Jared Donaldson 7-6 6-4 6-2.
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