Tennis

Wimbledon glance: Nadal, Djokovic favorites to reach 3rd Rd

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 10:36 p.m. ET

A quick look at Wimbledon:

LOOKAHEAD TO THURSDAY

Rafael Nadal owns 17 Grand Slam titles, including two at Wimbledon. Novak Djokovic has won 12 majors, three at the All England Club. Both are scheduled to play in the second round Thursday against opponents with no such hardware on their resumes. The No. 2-seeded Nadal will open the day's schedule at Centre Court against 77th-ranked Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan, who has been as far as the fourth round at a major exactly once and lost his opening matches at the Australian Open and French Open this year. Nadal has won all three of their previous matchups. Djokovic, a former No. 1 who is seeded 12th, can become only the fifth man in the professional era to collect 60 wins at Wimbledon, by beating 126th-ranked Horacio Zeballos of Argentina on No. 2 Court. Zeballos has only once been past the second round at a Grand Slam tournament, getting to the fourth round at the 2017 French Open. Plus, Djokovic has never lost to someone ranked as low as Zeballos at a major and is 1-0 in their lone head-to-head meeting. Another Grand Slam champion in action on Day 4 is 2009 U.S. Open winner Juan Martin del Potro, facing Feliciano Lopez, who is participating in his record 66th consecutive major. Among those resuming matches that were suspended Wednesday because of rain in the evening: No. 3 Marin Cilic, No. 8 Kevin Anderson, No. 9 John Isner and three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka. In women's action, No. 1 Simona Halep, No. 3 Garbine Muguruza and No. 22 Johanna Konta highlight the schedule.

THURSDAY'S FORECAST

Cloudy. Chance of rain. High of 79 degrees (26 Celsius).

WEDNESDAY'S WEATHER

Sunny, then showers interrupted play in the evening. High of 77 degrees (25 Celsius).

WEDNESDAY'S KEY RESULTS

Men's second round: No. 1 Roger Federer beat Lukas Lacko 6-4, 6-4, 6-1; No. 11 Sam Querrey beat Sergiy Stakhovsky 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-3; Dennis Novak beat No. 17 Lucas Pouille 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (8), 3-6, 6-2.

Women's second round: Ekaterina Makarova beat No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 1-6, 7-5; No. 7 Karolina Pliskova beat Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 6-3; No. 9 Venus Williams beat Alexandra Dulgheru 4-6, 6-0, 6-1; No. 25 Serena Williams beat Viktoriya Tomova 6-1, 6-4.

STAT OF THE DAY

61 - Aces hit by Ivo Karlovic in 6-7 (5), 3-6, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4), 13-11 loss to Jan-Lennard Struff.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

''I would be extremely surprised if she goes far.'' - Wozniacki on Makarova.

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