Young pretenders mapping road to the summit

Two young German-speaking pretenders to Novak Djokovic's tennis crown took further small steps on Wednesday towards the goal of dethroning him, comfortably seeing off experienced opponents at Wimbledon as they advance in the rankings.

While Serbian Djokovic, reigning supreme at the top of the game with four consecutive Grand Slam titles, was sweeping past France's Adrian Mannarino in the luxurious setting of Centre Court, 22-year-old Austrian Dominic Thiem had to battle the elements as well as Germany's Florian Mayer on Court 3.

For eighth-seeded Thiem, whose French Open run earlier this month was ended at the semifinal stage by Djokovic, Wednesday's match - on a surface he has viewed with suspicion - nudged him another rung up the career ladder.