Live from Wimbledon Day 3 - Gauff, Krejcikova classics light up SW19

**SPEAKER_2** (0:11)
Hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast, live from Wimbledon, and presented by Barclays, the official banking partner of Wimbledon. It is day three of the championships. We're here on the close, or at the close of play, on what counts as an early night, 9:45 p.m. And for that, we have Novak Djokovic to thank, because he just put in the most efficient of all the efficient performances to dispatch poor old Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and 38 minutes. You know, Novak Djokovic, he's a slow tennis player between points. His matches really don't get much shorter at Grand Slams than an hour and 38 minutes. This match started at 7:53 p.m. Deadline Djokovic, David, is back.

**David Law** (1:03)
Yeah, and I mean, this time it wasn't about maybe curfew. What have we got? You know, you'd have another hour and 15 There is an element of time pressure there. I think he, I think their senses are heightened because he, it was a bit messy in the first round. You know, he had his hands full in that match against Wu Yubing. But I think knowing the the reputation of Tsitsipas after that match, he needed to tighten things up. He needed to be absolutely on it. He didn't want Tsitsipas to find sort of 2021 version of himself and find himself in another awful situation.
But I also think there is that ticking time in his in his brain.
I think he's got that ticking time in his in his brain of how much energy he's got to spare in this fortnight if he wants to win this tournament and likely have to do what he did in Australia and beat Jannik Sinner in a semi-final, which he knows he can do. But he he did that because partly because he hadn't had many hours on the tennis court. I realize he got a bit lucky there with Lorenzo Mazzetti's retirement and so forth. But he was just so efficient today. He was so clean. And honestly, you said poor old Stefanos Tsitsipas. It is sad seeing the way he is playing now.

**Matt Roberts** (2:27)
Yes. And the break of serve that Djokovic got to start this match and set him on his way in the opening set was the exact reason why I was surprised by the number of people I heard saying today that they thought Tsitsipas had a chance in this one.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:47)
Oh, you've done well not to name names there.

**Matt Roberts** (2:49)
It's honestly, people have come up to me at various points today and said, Tsitsipas, I think you might have a bit of a chance.

**David Law** (2:57)
Was it Matthew?

**SPEAKER_2** (2:58)
Well, Matthew was one of the first.

**Matt Roberts** (2:59)
Matthew was one of them.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:01)
And do you know, he was so committed to it that it even made me think, oh, am I reading this match wrong? Because that is not how I feel about it.

**Matt Roberts** (3:11)
Right, and then the break that Djokovic gets right at the start is Tsitsipas just making several backhand unforced errors in the game. You know, Djokovic has got a place to go against Tsitsipas. He has done for years, the tour has done for years, quite frankly, and Tsitsipas has also never really improved his return, and that gets exposed on this surface as well, and Djokovic can set up the points that he wants in that way, and yeah, once he grabbed that opening set, he was off and running, and then the crucial break he got in the second set, extraordinary anticipation and defense from Novak Djokovic, but also like Tsitsipas like put the ball away, like he just wouldn't do it, and Djokovic hung in this rally, and you knew that once he'd made the defensive plays, he was then going to be determined not to lose it, and he had this incredible cross-court forehand that ended up helping him to get to win that point and get the break, and at two sets to love after only an hour on the clock, he was in a perfect position Djokovic, and we wondered after his first round, what damage that had done to his canister and the minutes he's got in his legs here. Well, he's got something back tonight, I think, you know, with this one, like he wouldn't have, I'm not even sure he would have expected to be off the court in just over 90 minutes.
This is very, very helpful, I think, for his prospects in this tournament.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:31)
The jacket was back, he put the jacket back on, he wore it to walk out, he put it back on for the interview. It was Rory McElroy in the Royal Box today, wearing his green Masters jacket.