A good start of the tournament for the world no.1.
Nole had on paper an easy draw, but the first round was somewhat tricky as he had to play against a dangerous Florian Mayer ranked 34 in the world. Eventually Nole found his way in straight set breaking the German once per set.
The Serb went also quite a lot to the net to win 20 points out of 26.
From Nole
“For the opening match of my grass-court season, it was a very satisfying performance.
Even though I think that I can play better, for the first match it’s normal to expect that you’re still kind of finding your rhythm and adjusting to a new surface and new movement. Hopefully I can elevate my game as the tournament goes on.
Knowing his quality and knowing that we played in the quarter-finals last year gave me enough reason to obviously not underestimate him and respect the fact that I needed to be 100% focused from the start and try to have the control of the match. I played well in important moments.”
Next vs. Reynold
Nole will play the second round against Bobby Reynold from USA (world no.156)