Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis faced his worst nightmare when he met seed number one Novak Djokovic in the second round of Wimbledon. Djokovic, who looked shaky in the first round, was back to his old self in the second round.
The Serbian comfortably won the match 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the next round. During the post-match interview, Kokkinakis asked what it was like to play Djokovic. He said, “He’s a wall. Playing a wall, that’s what it felt like. It felt like he just did everything right.”
What’s it like facing @DjokerNole at the height of his powers?
“He’s a wall. That’s what it felt like. It felt like he just did everything right. He just made things uncomfortable. Tactically he was on point against me.” 🎤 @TKokkinakis #Wimbledon
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) June 30, 2022
Kokkinakis had no shame in admitting that the match was completely one-sided. As per him, Djokovic did everything right and gave no room for any error. Furthermore, the Australian said, “He had a high first-serve percentage, he returned great. He volleyed well, he just made things uncomfortable. He does everything right. It was pretty one-way traffic.”
Kokkinakis is hoping that no one beats Djokovic as that would only mean how far he is from the top players. He said, “If someone beats him when he’s playing like that, it means I’m even further off than I thought.”
Novak Djokovic satisfied with his second-round performance
Djokovic did not shy away from praising himself and admitted that his quality of play was high against Kokkinakis. He said, “I think the quality of tennis was really high from my side. It was better than the first-match performance.”
For Djokovic, the second-round performance was really satisfying. As Kokkinakis said, the Serbian served well and did not commit too many unforced errors. Moreover, Djokovic said, “I played with not too many unforced errors from the back of the court, whenever I needed to put the return in, I did, so all in all, just a really satisfying performance.”
Djokovic will face No 25 seed Miomir Kecmanovic in the third round. With his current form, he is on course to win his seventh Wimbledon title. His other rivals like Nadal and Alcaraz are also playing well without any major hiccups.
