Djokovic serves up a big win

NOVAK Djokovic has sent a warning to his rivals at the ATP Finals, brushing aside big-serving John Isner 6-4, 6-3 to launch his bid for a recordequalling sixth ATP Finals title.

Earlier, in the same Guga Kuerten group, Alexander Zverev made it six consecutive wins against Marin Cilic in a contest at London’s O2 Arena featuring scores of unforced errors.

World No.1 Djokovic, though, was playing a different game, appearing little troubled by the howitzers coming off Isner’s racquet — breaking his opponent three times and not conceding a single break point.

In stark contrast to second seed Roger Federer, who produced an error-strewn performance in a loss to Kei Nishikori, he made only six unforced errors and won 86 per cent of points on his serve, making a mockery of the apparent challenging nature of the playing surface.

“The match was great, obviously,” the 31-year-old said.

“I had three breaks of serve of John, which is sometimes mission impossible, but I managed to be at the right place at the right time.

“I held serve well, I backed it up from the baseline, I played very solid and didn’t give him many opportunities.”

Speaking about the court conditions, he said: “It takes a little bit of time really to get yourself adjusted to the surface ... it takes a lot of rotation, takes a lot of spin. When you serve well, also it accelerates through the court.”

With Cristiano Ronaldo watching on, the top seed broke Isner in the fifth game of the first set to establish a stranglehold and never looked like allowing the American eighth seed back into the contest.

The Serb is a red-hot favourite to draw level on six titles at the season finale with Federer, who faces an uphill task to reach the semi-finals after his loss in his first roundrobin match.