Gritty Ivanovic hangs on as countryman Djokovic goes home

WIMBLEDON, England -- Ana was lucky. She said so herself. Novak was awful. He said as much himself.

The Serbian kids went in different directions Wednesday at Wimbledon. For Ana Ivanovic, it was into the third round. For Novak Djokovic, it was out of the tournament.

Djokovic can't continue his impressive run in the majors. (Getty Images)

"I didn't do anything I was supposed to do," Djokovic conceded.

He didn't play like the No. 3 seed. He didn't look like someone who had been no worse than a semifinalist in the previous five Grand Slam tournaments.

Most of all, he didn't beat 75th-ranked Marat Safin, who scored a 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-2 victory.

"He was just better than me today," said Djokovic. "I had a very bad day, and that's it."

Ivanovic, the world's No. 1-ranked woman player and the No. 1 seed at this Wimbledon, didn't have her best day. She was one point away from being eliminated in the second set.

She got a break, a ball that hit the net cord and managed to plop on the other side, and then like all quality athletes took advantage, staggering on to defeat the 97th-ranked player, Nathalie Dechy, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (3), 10-8.

"I feel very lucky," said Ivanovic. "I thought the match would be over. So many situations I should have done differently. I wanted to go out and play again the match."

In effect, she was able to do just that, going to a third set that dragged things out longer than an extra-inning baseball game -- 3 hours, 24 minutes, to be exact.

Djokovic got only three sets and didn't win any of them. He had nine double faults.

"It was mostly me," he said when someone wondered if Safin, long ago and far away a world No. 1, had something to do with the upset.

"He was very solid, but I wasn't doing anything to hurt him. My serve, even though I had a high percentage of first serves, was going to his racket. No angles, no precision whatsoever."