London: World number one Rafael Nadal will look to capitalize on his great start to the Wimbledon campaign when he squares off with Russian tennis player Mikhail Kukushkin in the second round of the men’s singles event here on Thursday.
The 32-year-old started off his campaign with a comfortable 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 win over his Israeli opponent Dudi Sela in a one-sided opening round clash.
Heading into the second match, Nadal holds a 100% winning record against the Russian player, having defeated him in all the three encounters they have played so far.
Their last meeting was in the third round of Wimbledon, four years ago, where Nadal claimed a comfortable 7-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 win over the Russian.
Meanwhile, Swiss tennis star Roger Federer breezed into the third round of the championship after thrashing his Slovak opponent Lukas Lacko 6-4, 6-4, 6-1 in the second-round clash.
Novak Djokovic also entered the third round after fighting a hard battle against Frenchman Luka Pouille 4-6, 2-6, 7-7, 6-3, 2-6.
In the women’s singles event, American tennis star Serena Williams got past Bulgarian tennis player Viktoriya Tomova to get through the third round.
In other clashes of the day, twenty-one ranked Novak Djokovic will face 37-ranked Argentina player Horacio Zeballos in his third-round clash.
ANI