Defending champion Andy Murray and top-seed Novak Djokovic have advanced to the third round of Wimbledon, while world number seven David Ferrer of Spain has crashed out of the championship on Wednesday.
Blaz Rola of Slovenia proved to be no match for Murray, as the reigning Wimbledon champion overpowered him 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 to improve his win-loss record to 38-7 at the All England Club. The two-time major winner took just 88 minutes en route to his straight sets victory.
The British number one fired seven aces and racked up 27 winners on both sides of the court and allowed the Ohio State University graduate to win only two games. Murray will face Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain in the next round.
"When you are in a position to win a match like that, you have to try and do it as quickly as possible, because all of the players in this tournament are very, very good tennis players," Murray said. "If you give them a look in a set or they see a way back in, they can start playing very well. You just try to keep it going."
Meanwhile, world number two Djokovic survived a second round scare against Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-6(5) to move into the third round. The 2011 champion after winning the first two sets looked prepared for a straight sets victory over the Czech.
Stepanek, however, pushed the match to the fourth set, when he rallied back in the third set tiebreaker. Djokovic, after surrendering a 5-2 lead in the third set, made no mistake in the fourth set and registered his 10th straight victory over the world number 38.
"(Stepanek) has great touch, great talent at the net. He covered my passing shots very well," said Djokovic. Credit to (Stepanek) for fighting in the third. I thought I could have finished the match in three sets."
"But I didn't come out with my first serve when I needed to in the tie-breaker, and he came back," he added. "He fought. It was a very close, very even fourth set. It could have gone either way. I'm just happy to have spent this amount of time on the court, to play a lot of rallies, to return and to serve. Physically I feel fine. This can just help me mentally for the (remainder) of the event."
The 2011 champion will now face Frenchman Gilles Simon, who defeated Dutchman Robin Haase 7-6(1), 6-4, 6-4 in another second round encounter.
Spaniard David Ferrer's Wimbledon campaign came to a premature end, when he was defeated by qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia 6-7 (5/7), 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. This is the first time Ferrer has failed to reach the third round of The Championships.
"I lost because my opponent was better,"Ferrer said "I think I played a good game, but he surprised to me and... (hit) a lot of winners. In the important moments, he was more aggressive than me."
