Wimbledon, day 5, LIVE: Novak Djokovic will try to take another step, but David Nalbandian will try to prevent it

With no Argentines in the singles competition – the last to say goodbye was Diego Schwartzman, who lost to Britain’s Liam Broady on Thursday – Wimbledon will start playing round three of its main draw this Friday. And Novak Djokovic will be the main attraction of the day on Center Court, which celebrates his centenary in his current location, in a duel that will also see his Juventus representative.

The Serbian, the first favorite of the match, will face his compatriot Myomir Kecmanovic25th seeded and coached by David Nalbandian.

freightwho is looking for his seventh title in All of England (fourth in a row) and 21st in a Grand Slam, comes sweeping the Aussie 6-1, 6-4 and 6-2 Thanasi Kokkinakis. In that victory against the oceanic, the current world number three showed a superlative tennis level and erased the few doubts he had sown by giving up a set on his debut, the second of the match won in four against the South Korean Soon woo Kwon.

Kecmanovic beat the Australian in his presentation John Millman in four sets and then to the Chilean Alessandro Tabilo, to enter for the first time in the third round of the British “greats”. He has thus improved his best historical results, the second rounds of 2019 and 2021.

The other exceptional duel of the men’s draw will be that between the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, fifth-seeded, and the German Oscar Otta, 32 °. She will be in the third round of Court 1 (around 12 in Argentina), after two matches of women’s singles, Heather Watson–Kaj Juvan Y angelica kerber (15 °) –elisa mertens (24 °).

Alcaraz, one of the best players of this 2022, with four titles and the arrival in the top 10 at just 18 years old (today he is already one more), needed five sets to overcome the debut against the German Jan Lennard Struff. But in the second round he was much more confident and comfortable on grass, a surface he doesn’t have much experience on, and he won 6-4, 7-6 (7-0) and 6-3 against the Dutchman. Tallon Griekspoor (53 °).

Otte comes fresher to the game. It is that in the second round he only stayed on the pitch for 15 minutes because his rival, the American Christian Harrison, injured retiree. At 28, he has already signed his best historical performance at Wimbledon and wants to aim for more.

As for women, the highlight will be the presentation of the Tunisian Ons Jabeurthird favorite and one of the great candidates for the title, who will open the action on Friday on the central field against the French Diana Perry77th in the WTA, 19 years old and playing for the first time in All England.

Jabeur, who just lifted the trophy on the Berlin lawn and climbed to second place on Monday, wants to use his great moment – in the best season of his career – to win his first major. On his debut he beat the Swedes 6-1 and 6-3 Mirjam Björklund and in the second round, 6-4 and 6-0 for the Pole Katarzyna Kawa.

In the other matches of the day, the English cameron norrie (9 °) will play with the American Steve Johnson; Italian Sinner Jannik (10th), with the American John Isner (20th); the American Francesca Tiafè (23rd), with the Kazakh Alexander Bublik; The Greek Maria Sakkar (5th) will clash with the German Tatjana Maria; and the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko (12th), with Romanian Irina Camelia Begu.

Two Argentine rackets, on the other hand, will see the action in doubles.

No earlier than 8:30, Sebastián Báez and Federico Delbonis will take the field to complete the first leg duel against the Serbian Nicola Cacic and Italian Andrea Vassori, postponed to Thursday due to delays caused by rain. The European pair were leading 5-2 in the first set when the action was stopped.

Secondly, Massimo Gonzalez he will make his debut in the mixed doubles together with the American Kaitlyn Christian. Tandil’s man – already eliminated from the men’s pairs tournament – and his partner will clash in the third round (around 10:30) against the French Edouard Roger Vasselin and Alize Cornet.