A routine day at office for Djokovic
It was a routine day at the office for Novak Djokovic. Nice and easy. The Serbian world No.1 opened his campaign in the ATP 500 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships by dusting off Tunisian wildcard Malek Jaziri on a working day on Monday night.
Djokovic, who added a record eighth Australian Open piece of silverware to his trophy cabinet at the start of the year, won 6-1, 6-2 in an hour and 56 seconds at a sold out Centre Court of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium.
The 32-year-old five-time Wimbledon champion broke Jaziri in the second and fourth and then wrapped up the first set with a sizzling ace.
The second set went on serve until Djokovic got the break in the fifth. He broke him again in the seventh and then served out and finishing it in identical fashion — with an ace.
Djokovic had seven aces to Jaziri’s two with his fastest first serve recorded at 201 kmph.
Djokovic goes up against German veteran Philipp Kohlschreiber in the round of 16 after the latter rallied from a set down to ward off the threat from Egyptian Mohamed Safwat. The 36-year-old Kohlschreiber won 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 in two hours and one minute.
Meanwhile, sixth seeded Russian world No. 14 Andrey Rublev, one of the rising stars, got past Italian Lorenzo Musetti.
“It’s a great way to start out the tournament,” Djokovic said after his match.
“As I’ve said prior to the tournament, I miss playing here. I really enjoy it. I enjoy night sessions. There’s a lot of people for the opening day of the tournament. It’s a working day so I want to thank everyone coming out. It was a great atmosphere. One-hour match, I think I’ve done everything as well as I imagined it to be for the first match. Of course, there’s things that always can be improved, things that can be better. But I have to be satisfied with the performance,” he added.
Djokovic was asked if defending champion Roger Federer’s absence had altered things a little bit, the three-time US Open champion replied in the negative.
“Well, look, not in particular. I mean of course Roger is such an important person and player and brand for our sport. Of course, you don’t want to see him missing one tournament, two tournaments. Now he’s going to be out till the grass season as I hear. That’s a blow for our sport and for this tournament in particular where he’s defending champion, he has won many times,” said Djokovic.
“But it doesn’t change much in terms of my approach. If he would have been here in the draw, we would possibly meet only in the final. You got to win four matches. You got to build your game. You got to win against all these guys that are playing on a high level. There’s some top players from the top 10, top 15, four, five players who are playing each year. It makes this tournament a great challenge for me or for anybody else,” he explained.
Looking ahead to his next match against Kohlschreiber, Djokovic said: “I lost to him in straight sets in Indian Wells last year. I am aware of what he’s capable of. He likes actually playing top players on a big stage. He has lots of experience. He’s very fit. He keeps on playing even at that age on a high level. I certainly will not underestimate him.”