Novak Djokovic was probably a bit rusty in Rome to have a surprisingly tight match against Nicolas Almagro in the opener.
After winning an easy 1st set 6-1, Nole wasn’t able to break Almagro in the second set to lose the tie-break at 5. The world no.1 took full advantage of his tennis in the crunch time. The couple was trailing on a 4-3 score-line for Djokovic when Almagro imploded on his service game to give the Serbian the decisive break. The final score was 6-1 6-7 (5) 6-3. Match Stats.
Djokovic: at the end it is a win
Nole was not very impressed with his tennis, but eventually he was happy to get through “At the end of the day it’s a win after three weeks with no official match. In the important moments today, I did feel a little bit uncomfortable. Maybe that’s due to a lack of competitive play in the past couple of weeks. But I won against a quality player, who knows how to play on the big stage. All in all, it was a great test. Before coming to the court, I was aware he was going to present a great challenge.”
Next vs. Bellucci or Bautista-Agut
Djokovic will play either Bellucci (H2H 2-0 for Nole) or Bautista-Agut (H2H 2-0 for the Serbian)
| TOUGH DAY AT THE OFFICE |
| AT LEAST HE CAN RELAX A BIT |
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