IMAGES from Day 4 of the Wimbledon Championships, at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, on Thursday.
Fourth seed Alexander Zverev stepped up his bid for an elusive Grand Slam title by thumping American Marcos Giron 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 on Thursday to reach the Wimbledon third round, where he will face Briton Cameron Norrie.
The 2020 US Open runner-up who lost again in a major final at the French Open last month, underlined his credentials for grasscourt success by breezing through the first set on the back of two breaks and tightening his grip early in the next.
After building a 5-1 lead with some outstanding tennis, the 27-year-old clawed his way from 0-40 down to break Giron again and wrapped up the second set when the unseeded American produced a double fault.
Zverev, looking to become only the third German to win the Wimbledon title in the professional era and emulate Boris Becker and Michael Stich, faced a lot more resistance in the third but closed out the match when Giron sent a shot long.
Djokovic overcomes spirited Fearnley challenge
Even though Novak Djokovic was nursing a dodgy right knee, toppling him at Wimbledon was never going to be easy for a Briton ranked 277th and so it proved to be as the Serb huffed and puffed into the third round with a 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 win over Jacob Fearnley.
The wildcard, who was ranked outside the world's top 500 just a month ago before shooting up almost 250 spots after winning a second tier Challenger event in Nottingham, will take away many memorable moments from his Centre Court debut.
He is unlikely to forget the ground-shaking, ear-splitting roar Djokovic let out after the Serb broke him for a 3-2 lead in the third set.
Fearnley will also cherish the memory of being applauded by one of the sport's all-time greats when he produced a screaming crosscourt winner that went flying past Djokovic to earn him a break point in the next game.
No doubt he will remember the thrill of breaking the 24-times Grand Slam champion for the first time, when the Serb dumped a backhand into the net, and the rapturous standing ovation that followed.
Fearnley will also mentally keep replaying the high-risk, high-reward strategy he employed in the final game of the third set, which ended with Djokovic hacking a forehand wide to surrender his serve and the set - to the delight of the hollering crowd.
He had Djokovic on the ropes again after a double fault from the seven-times Wimbledon champion handed Fearnley two break points at 3-2 up in the fourth set.
Once the 37-year-old dodged that danger, it was clear that Djokovic's unheralded opponent had got under his skin as he agitatedly held up his right forefinger to his lips in an attempt to shush the crowd.
Unsurprisingly, the noisy partisan fans packed into the 15,000-capacity arena turned a deaf ear to that request as the decibel levels kept ratcheting up with every Fearnley winner.
But for all the heroics from the journeyman Scot, who until this week had never won a main tour match or even competed at a Grand Slam, he was simply not enough to tame a player who was chasing a record-extending 372nd match win in a Grand Slam arena.
A forehand winner sealed Djokovic his passage into round three and ensured he kept up his 100% winning record at the majors against British players not named Andy Murray.
"Huge congrats to Jacob for an amazing match. He put in a great effort and played very good tennis," said the second seed, who played with his right knee strapped after undergoing surgery on a torn meniscus just a month ago.
"This match potentially deserved to get into a fifth the way we both played, the way he played particularly in the fourth, but I’m very glad it didn’t."
Rune dazzles against Seyboth Wild
Denmark's Holger Rune recovered from a slow start against Brazil's Thiago Seyboth Wild to win an entertaining tussle and book his place in Wimbledon's third round.
The 21-year-old 15th seed dropped serve early on the way to losing the opening set but raised his game impressively after that to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
Rune, who reached the quarter-finals last year, will face French qualifier Quentin Halys next after he knocked out 21st seed Karen Khachanov in five sets.
Regarded as a player likely to one day challenge for a Grand Slam title, Rune did not let the unpredictable Seyboth Wild or a gusty wind on Court 18 throw him off balance.
He delighted fans, many perched on the sunny terrace overlooking one of Wimbledon's most quirky courts, with his full repertoire of powerful groundstrokes and silky touch, drawing gasps with one incredible running backhand pass late on.
Seyboth Wild also contributed to the spectacle with some dazzling strokes of his own but was eventually outclassed.
Fils in third round as Hurkacz retires after fall
Seventh seed Hubert Hurkacz became the third men's top-eight player to make an early exit as he retired from his second-round clash against Frenchman Arthur Fils with a knee injury on Thursday.
Having made a slow start, Hurkacz was on course to level the match at two sets apiece when he dived for a volley at the net in the fourth set tiebreak to go 8-7 up, but landed badly and stayed on the turf to receive treatment on his right knee.
Hurkacz limped on after a lengthy medical timeout before producing another desperate dive shortly after, but his movement was severely hampered.
He threw in the towel at 7-6(2), 6-4, 2-6, 6-6 having gone down 9-8 in the tie-break.
The big-serving Pole, who beat Roger Federer to reach the 2021 semi-finals and took a set off seven-times champion Novak Djokovic in the last 16 last year, had primed himself for more major damage after a run to the Halle final last month.
Hurkacz showed flashes of his best form after a lacklustre effort in the first two sets but could not see off the 20-year-old Fils on a sunny afternoon, joining sixth seed Andrey Rublev and eighth seed Casper Ruud in making a premature exit.
Fils became the youngest Frenchman to reach the Wimbledon third round since 2005, when both Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils did so as teenagers but his celebration was understandably muted.
Fils next faces Russian Roman Safiullin in his 10th tour-level match on grass.
Fils's 37-year-old compatriot Monfils joined him in advancing after beating three-times Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka 7-6(5), 6-4, 7-6(3) in a match that began on Wednesday.
