Novak Djokovic is off and running at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, as he defeated Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-6(5), 6-2 during second-round action on Friday evening. Djokovic recovered from a break down in the first set and 5-3 down in the tiebreaker to prevail after one hour and 51 minutes.
The top seed and defending champion never looked 100 percent physically–not even while coming back from his early deficit. He at least managed to improve from the 21 unforced errors that he sprayed throughout the opening frame of play. It was enough for Djokovic to set up a showdown in the round of 32 against Grigor Dimitrov.
“(It’s) still not the desired level; (I’m) still finding the shots and finding that groove on the court,” Djokovic commented. “It’s always a little bit tricky playing someone for the first time. He’s a clay-court specialist. He started better than I did; I started pretty slow, but I found my groove towards the end of the first. The second set was good–especially the last three or four games. I’m happy with the way I closed out the match.”
Dimitrov also closed out his opening match in straight sets, beating Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 7-6(3). The result in a 12th encounter between Djokovic and Dimitrov, with the Serb dominating the head-to-head series 10-1.
Nonetheless, the Bulgarian relishes another opportunity.
“I like those matches, Dimitrov insisted. “I’ve been on tour for so long, I feel comfortable to play against these guys. I know I don’t have the best record against him, but I like to play against him and any of the top guys to see where I’m at. You never know how it’s going to go at the end of the day. I always like my chances.”
Djokovic and Dimitrov are joined in the third round by Fabio Fognini, who followed up his defeat of Andy Murray with a 6-3, 7-6(6) victory over Miomir Kecmanovic on Friday afternoon. It was a wild atmosphere and Sunday’s scene promises to be even more raucous, as Fognini will go up against Holger Rune.
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Another record, with this win Nole is the only man in the Open Era with a winning percentage of 80% or better on hard, grass AND clay.
Was Nole playing his best tennis, of course not, he hardly played matches this CC season, he is finding his rhythm on clay but you definitely should give some credit to Etcheverry who played very good match and made Nole work hard and earn this win.
Looks like it
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