Wimbledon: Federer, Djokovic ease to 2nd round as opponents retire

Former champions Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic each eased into the second round at Wimbledon after their opponents called it a day.

Both incidents happened at the Centre Court on Tuesday, with the second (Federer’s match), causing the crowd to boo at the end of the unfinished match.

Federer was leading 6-3 3-0 against Alexandr Dolgopolov when the Ukrainian came to the net to concede the match having received treatment just a little earlier.

The win however meant the seven-time champion has set the Wimbledon record of most male wins.

Much earlier, second seed Djokovic was involved in a similar situation.

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The Serb was leading 6-3 2-0 when the Slovakia’s Martin Klizan retired from the game because of a calf injury.

Klizan had called for the trainer at the end of the first set and after finding himself an early break down in the second, he decided to call it a day.

“You never like to end up a match this way but I heard that Klizan had issues even before walking on the court,” said Djokovic.

“You could see he wasn’t moving. Once the ball was a couple of feet away from him, he let it go.”

But while Federer will be playing either Lajovic or Tsitsipas in the next round, Djokovic will face Adam Pavlasek.

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