NOVAK DJOKOVIC IS through to the third round at Wimbledon following an easy straight sets victory over South Africa’s Kevin Anderson.
The Serb took just 15 minutes to establish a 5-0 lead over an opponent whose serve was letting him down badly, before Anderson staged a mini revival.
He took three games in a row but Djokovic triumphed in the ninth to take the opening set.
Anderson performed better in the second set and even took some applause from Djokovic for a deft drop-shot, but one sloppy service game – which the 24-year-old won to love – proved the underdog’s undoing and he was suddenly two sets down.
The world number 36 had three break points in the sixth game of the third set but Djokovic was not giving an inch, and he coasted through the remainder of the match to win 6-3 6-4 6-2.
Robin Soderling, the men’s fifth seed, had a much tougher passage through to the next round as he faced the challenge of former world number one Lleyton Hewitt.
The Australian looked set to cause the first major upset of the tournament when he went two sets up, but Soderling found his touch when he needed it most and came back to win 6-7 (5-7) 3-6 7-5 6-4 6-4.
In the women’s draw, Serena Williams lost the opening set against teenager Simona Halep but roared back to claim a 3-6 6-2 6-1 victory.
The defending champion will now go on to face either Maria Kirilenko or Tamarine Tanasugarn in the third round.
Williams’ recent return from both injury and serious illness has been well documented and she was sluggish to begin with, conceding the opening set to her Romanian opponent.
However, the 29-year-old broke early in the second set and her powerful baseline play made it impossible for Halep to cope, and the younger Williams sister only got stronger as she tore through the final set and made sure of the win.
Ana Ivanovic made light work of Eleni Daniilidou at the start of the day’s play. The world number 18 had no trouble in recording a 6-3 6-0 win and was joined in the third round by Svetlana Kuznetsova, who beat Alexanda Dulgheru 6-0 6-2 without stopping for breath.
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