QUERREY WINS CONTINUATION MATCH WITH TSONGA, ROGER FEDERER JOINS DJOKOVIC IN WIMBLEDON SECOND WEEK BY RICKY DIMON

In the third round of Wimbledon last year, Sam Querrey saw his match against Novak Djokovic postponed due to darkness while it was ongoing. Querrey came back out the next day and capped off one of the biggest upsets of that season.

Lightning struck twice at the All-England Lawn and Tennis Club on Saturday, albeit this time in less dramatic fashion. With his battle against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga extended after night fell too early for a Friday completion, Querrey returned to the grass that he loves so derly with a 6-5 fifth-set lead in hand. The world No. 28 did not wait long to seal the deal. He broke Tsonga right away to end it, avenging a 14-12 in the fifth set loss to the Frenchman at Wimbledon in 2014 by prevailing 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(5), 1-6, 7-5.

“It was anticlimactic, but I will take the one game like that over anything else,” Querrey said. “In the last game I kind of had a little bit of the house money since I was returning first and I kind of had a game to play with, I guess you could say. I think that helped. I was just trying to win however I could.”

Aside from the Querrey-Tsonga continuation, it was the bottom half of the bracket’s turn to take center stage in the third round. Most of the favorites–Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer among them–took care of business and punched tickets to the second week. Djokovic ended Ernests Gulbis’ run 6-4, 6-1, 7-6(2) and Roger Federer beat Mischa Zverev 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-4.

“I think it’s great,” Federer responded when asked about the Big 4 (Federer, Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray) being in the second week of Wimbledon for the first time since 2011. “I’m not that surprised because I thought that everybody this week was going to find their form, especially speaking about Andy and Novak. So I thought they did it very well.

“With me, I hoped I was going to be there. Whereas with Rafa’s confidence, I thought he was also going to be there. So I’m not that surprised, but it’s great.”

Djokovic’s passage to round four was hardly ever in doubt. The Serb started relatively slow and trailed by an early break against Gulbis, but he reeled off a stretch of nine straight games from 4-2 down in the first set to a 6-4, 5-0 lead.

“Gulbis is someone that is very unpredictable and has a huge serve,” Djokovic commented. “With that kind of game–very powerful, fast game from back of the court–it’s not easy to play against him on this surface. I’m really pleased that I managed to win in straight sets against him, especially in the third set where he started serving better, higher percentage of first serves. He kind of gave it a last shot. I thought he played a good quality tennis. But I managed to hang on with him and play a very good tiebreak.”

Djokovic will go up against Adrian Mannarino on the middle Monday, while Federer is set for a meeting with Grigor Dimitrov. As for Querrey, he is continuing his campaign against Kevin Anderson.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on twitter at @Dimonator.