Djokovic racks up 30th successive Slam win

Cepelova, Slovakia’s No. 5 female player, had to win three matches in qualifying to make it into the main draw.

Come the end of the day, after intermittent showers caused play on all but Centre to finish by 6.30pm, the weather problem was mounting for organisers.

“But the first part of the match was almost flawless so I’m very pleased with how I started Wimbledon”, said Djokovic.

Bouchard is leading 6-3, 2-1.

Willis won three matches in a special British Lawn Tennis Association event just to earn a wild card into qualifying for Wimbledon.

It will be the first time these two players meet and it seems unlikely that there will be any other outcome than an easy Djokovic win.

The last time two Grand Slam champions met in the second round at Wimbledon was in 2008, when Marat Safin defeated Djokovic.

With rain playing havoc with the scheduling at Wimbledon, organizers have decided that first-round men’s doubles matches will be played over best-of-three sets, instead of best-of-five. However, Djokovic, who is presently the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four Grand Slam titles at once, has won 45 of 49 matches this season and it is nearly impossible to envisage any kind of slip-up.

Resuming at 2-1 in the fourth set, he beat Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

Djokovic is the two-time defending champion at Wimbledon and has won the past four major tournaments, a run that began at the All England Club a year ago.

“I definitely stand for a change of format of the Davis Cup”, said 12-time Grand Slam title victor Djokovic.

Young won his first match at Wimbledon after losing in the first round in his five previous appearances.

The roof over Centre Court is truly serving as an edge for them.

First round: 21-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) bt Hsieh Su-Wei (Taiwan) 7-5, 1-6, 6-1; 3-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) bt Kateryna Kozlova (Ukraine) 6-2, 6-1; Evgeniya Rodina (Russia) bt Lesia Tsurenko (Ukraine) 6-3, 7-5; 32-Andrea Petkovic (Germany) bt Nao Hibino (Japan) 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.

However, with showers forecast for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the tournament may find it needs to forfeit its day off.

“A one-hour match is always good, especially with that weather”, Radwanska said. However, the rain also creates a backlog of matches for their future opponents, the players that do not get the privilege of playing under the roof.

But on the court, in the category of Slam streaks, he continues to distance himself from those already legendary players. “You can only play so much putt-putt in the locker room with your friends and what-not”.

Centre Court has had a retractable roof since 2009, made for days such as this.

On Tuesday, rain forced suspension in progress or complete postponement of a total of 30 matches.