‘He’s a wall’: Novak Djokovic shuts out Thanasi Kokkinakis at Wimbledon

“Come on, Than,” someone shouted from the crowd as Novak Djokovic was two points from victory on Centre Court here on Wednesday. “Make him work for it.” Thanasi Kokkinakis, who had been doing his best to get the six-times champion to break sweat for the last two hours, could only smile, shrug and ruefully shake his head.

To stand any chance against the No 1 seed Kokkinakis needed to get his big first serve up and running from the start. Instead, he kicked off with a double fault and went on to lose the game, and by the time he found some consistency on first serve, his opponent had already started to send quite a few back with interest.

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The sixth game of the match summed up Kokkinakis’s problem. He saved one break point with an ace and thumped down serves at 129mph and then 130mph immediately afterwards, but brilliant returns got both into play and Djokovic went on to take the points and the game for a 5-1 lead.

A better service game to open the second set was followed by another break in his next, with Djokovic walloping back another booming first serve to set up an easy volley. The Djokovic serve, meanwhile, seemed unassailable, and on the rare occasions when the door seemed slightly ajar, it immediately slammed shut. A rare double fault for 30-all in game six was followed by a very hittable second serve, but Kokkinakis ballooned it long and moments later, it was 4-2 to the champion.

Having closed out the second 6-4, Djokovic wasted no time in getting a break in the first game of the third. The best rally of the match had the ball skimming the net time and again before a lob from Djokovic left his opponent stranded, setting up a