Novak Djokovic had to play all three sets at Wimbledon this time. The three-time champion advanced to the third round by beating Adam Pavlasek 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 Thursday, two days after his opening match ended early when his opponent retired with an injury.
Djokovic won the Wimbledon title in 2011, '14 and '15. But he has not won a major title since completing a career Grand Slam at the 2016 French Open.
In his opening two matches at the All England Club, Djokovic has only lost eight games.
"It's perfect. Exactly what I want," Djokovic said. "I don't want to have any five-set matches in there."
Djokovic will next face Ernests Gulbis. The unseeded latvian defeated Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (3).
Grigor Dimitrov, Gael Monfils and David Ferrer also reached the third round. Ferrer advanced when opponent Steve Darcis retired with an injury while trailing 3-0.
Darcis is the eighth man to retire during a match this week. The Belgian took a medical timeout after 18 minutes of play and was unable to continue.
Two-time major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, seeded seventh, advanced to the third round in the women's draw along with ninth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska and 24th-seeded CoCo Vandeweghe.
Two players previously eliminated from the tournament were handed fines on Thursday.
Bernard Tomic of Australia was fined $15,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct two days after he spoke about feeling "a little bit bored out there" during his match.
Daniil Medvedev of Russia, who threw a handful coins in the direction of the chair umpire after a second-round loss on Wednesday, was given three fines totaling $14,500.
Paes loses, sania wins
Veteran leander Paes' 23rd appearance at the Wimbledon Championships ended with a first round defeat in a gruelling five-setter against Julian Knowle and Philipp Oswald, here on Thursday.
The combo of Paes and Adil Shamasdin lost 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-7(2) 8-10 to its Austrian rivals in the first round, which was just one minute short of four hours.
Elsewhere, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan's Grand Slam debut ended in the first round itself but not without a valiant fight as he and Jared Donaldson lost a gruelling five-setter. Nedunchezhiyan and his American partner lost 7-6 (4), 7-5, 6-7(3), 0-6, 3-6 to British pair of Marcus Willis and Jay Clarke after fighting hard for three hours and 15 minutes on court number nine.
Meanwhile, in the women's doubles, Sania and Kirsten Flipkens, seeded 13th, easily dispatched Naomi Osaka and Shuai Zhang 6-4 6-3 in their opening match. Also advancing to the second round of men's doubles were Purav Raja and Divij Sharan who pipped Kyle Edmunds and Joao Sousa 7-6(2) 3-6 6-4 7-6(8).
Kvitova stunned by Brengle
Madison Brengle knew, of course, that her opponent, Petra Kvitova, was a two-time Wimbledon champion and a popular pick to win the title again this year.
Brengle also was aware, of course, that she herself never had won so much as one main-draw match at the All England Club until this week.
This, instead, is all the 27-year-old from Dover, Delaware, was focused on as she began playing Kvitova on Wednesday evening on Court No. 2: Please just let me win a game. The 95th-ranked Brengle did just that - and much, much more, stunning the 11th-seeded Kvitova 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 to reach the third round at Wimbledon.
The reason for Brengle's preoccupation with taking merely a single gameIJ In her Wimbledon debut in 2015, she lost to Venus Williams 6-0, 6-0. "So, like, that's always in my head when I'm out here," Brengle said, pointing a finger at her right temple. "It's like, 'Oh, my goodness, don't do that ever again!' That was really tough for me."
Turned out, she didn't need to stress about a shutout for too long: Brengle broke the strong-serving Kvitova to take the very first game. "As long as I got on the board to start, then I could relax," Brengle said with a smile, "because, trust me, an 'O-and-O' stays with you."