Cilic blows two-set lead, crashes out

Nadal and Djokovic waltz into round three; Wawrinka loses to qualifier Fabbiano

July 06, 2018 01:24 am | Updated 01:25 am IST - London

Rain to the rescue:  With bad weather stopping play on Wednesday, Pella had a day to regroup and rally past Cilic.

Rain to the rescue: With bad weather stopping play on Wednesday, Pella had a day to regroup and rally past Cilic.

Former champions Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic battled into the Wimbledon third round on Thursday but third seed and 2017 runner-up Marin Cilic crashed out.

World No. 1 Nadal defeated Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 and will next face Australian teenager Alex de Minaur.

Djokovic needed treatment on his left thigh on Court Two but still had too many weapons for Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos, winning 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.

Cilic blew a two-set lead in his 3-6, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-5 loss to Argentina’s Guido Pella, ranked 82.

When rain forced the tie to be postponed on Wednesday, Cilic was leading by two sets against an opponent who had never won a match at Wimbledon before this year.

But the Croatian collapsed once the match resumed on Court One on Thursday and Pella took full advantage to set up a third round clash with Mackenzie McDonald.

Nadal, the 2008 and 2010 champion, was tested by World No. 77 Kukushkin.

The Kazakhstani was made to pay for converting just two of 13 break points in the match.

For Djokovic, meanwhile, victory was his 60th at Wimbledon — making him just the fifth man to claim 60 wins at the All England Club in the Open Era.

Djokovic hit 15 aces and 31 winners in a commanding win over 33-year-old Zeballos.

Three-time Major winner Stan Wawrinka was unable to follow up his first round defeat of sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov when he lost 7-6(7), 6-3, 7-6(6) to Italian qualifier Thomas Fabbiano.

Australian 17th seed Ashleigh Barty reached the third round for the first time with a 6-4, 7-5 win over fellow former Wimbledon junior champion Eugenie Bouchard.

India’s Divij Sharan and his New Zealand partner Artem Sitak made a winning start as they prevailed over Radu Albot and Malek Jaziri 7-6(4), 6-7(8), 6-3, 6-2 in two hours and 41 minutes.

It was, however, curtains for Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and his American partner Austin Krajicek they lost to Dutch pair Sander Arends and Matwe Middelkoop 7-6(5), 7-6(3), 7-6(2).

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