Djokovic, Federer cruise into fourth round at Wimbledon

Second-seeded Novak Djokovic and No. 3 seed Roger Federer were in top form Saturday as they both won in straight sets to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon.

Djokovic, a three-time Wimbledon champion from Serbia, beat Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 (2), reeling off nine games in a row at one stage on Centre Court at the All England Club in London.

Federer, a seven-time champion at the Grand Slam grass-court event, cruised to a 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-4 win over 27th-seeded Mischa Zverev of Germany in Saturday’s final match on Centre Court.

Djokovic, who extended his head-to-head against Gulbis to 7-1, is through to the fourth round at Wimbledon for the 10th time. He picked up his 236th win at a major.

“I am delighted with my performance today,” Djokovic said in a television interview afterward. ”I thought I raised the level of tennis,” Djokovic said in a television interview after the match that took two hours, 12 minutes. ”Comparing to the first couple of matches and the last couple of weeks, I think this was the most focused I was on the court.’

“And it came at the right time because Gulbis presents a great challenge. He is very unpredictable and he’s got a huge serve, an average of 125 or 130 mph. It’s not easy playing on grass against a big server like that.”

Djokovic will next face Adrian Mannarino, who defeated fellow Frenchman and No. 15 seed Gael Monfils 7-6 (3), 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 in three hours, 30 minutes.

Djokovic’s lone meeting with Mannarino came at at the All England Club last year, with the Serbian scoring a straight-sets win in the second round.

Federer hammered 61 winners to just seven errors, winning 83 percent of his first-serve points to prevail over Zverev in one hour, 49 minutes.

The victory puts the Swiss into the second week at Wimbledon for the 15th time in his career.

“It’s important to get through the first week with a good feeling and I think I got that,” Federer said.

“The first match with the walkover saved me a lot of energy, crucial energy. We go one round at a time. The first goal is to get through to the second week and I am happy to sit back and relax and then come back on Monday.”

Federer will next play 13th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov, who moved through after Dudi Sela of Israel was forced to retire because of a right adductor strain in their third-round match. The Bulgarian was leading 6-1, 6-1 before play came to a close as Sela became the ninth men’s player to retire from a match at this year’s tournament.

Federer leads 5-0 in his head-to-head against Dimitrov, a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2014. All of their meetings have come on hard courts.

Canada’s sixth-seeded Milos Raonic, last year’s runner-up at Wimbledon, advanced to the second week by beating 25th-seeded Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain 7-6 (3), 6-4, 7-5.

Raonic fired 21 aces and won 83 percent of his service points during the two-hour, 21-minute match. He finished with 55 winners and 26 unforced errors.

“I did a lot of things well today,” Raonic said. “I was efficient on my serve, created a bunch of opportunities. I started getting better and better there. Maybe at the beginning I wasn’t controlling the situation enough. But as the match went on, I felt like I was dictating more so from the baseline.”

Raonic, who lost to Andy Murray in last year’s final, is into the fourth round for the third time in four years.

American Sam Querrey, seeded No. 24, took only four minutes on court Saturday to beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga France 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 1-6, 7-5.

The third-round match was suspended Friday by darkness after 2 hours, 54 minutes with Querrey leading 6-5 in the fifth set. Tsonga served first upon resumption of the match, but Querrey immediately broke to seal the victory.

“I told myself to try to be aggressive,” said Querrey, who reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals last year. “On the last game I had a little bit of the house money since I was returning first and I kind of had a game to play with. I think that helped.”

Querrey made headlines at the All England Club last year when he stunned Djokovic in the third round.

“Grass is probably my favorite surface. Wimbledon is my favorite tournament,” Querrey said. “And for the first time in my career to have back-to-back years where I have made the second week is exciting.”

Querrey will next face South Africa’s Kevin Anderson, whom he leads 7-5 in head-to-head play.

“(Anderson has) one of the best serves in the game,” Querrey said. “A lot of times when you play a big server you actually need to focus on your own serve more, because sometimes you can take it for granted that I’m just going to hold and you’ll be good. It’s going to come down to a couple points here or there.”

German Alexander Zverev, the No. 10 seed, will play in the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time as the 20-year-old secured his spot in the fourth round with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 victory against Austrian qualifier Sebastian Ofner.

No. 11 seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic won 84 percent of his first-serve points to beat Spaniard David Ferrer 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in one hour, 45 minutes.