2011 Sony Ericsson Open - ATP Seeds Part III: Novak Djokovic
World Number 3 Novak Djokovic
Serbian tennis pro Novak "Djoker" Djokovic has been seeded third at the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, US. The 23-year-old player is currently ranked World Number 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals.
His career-high ranking is World Number 2, a position he held for a short time in 2010.
Djokovic has been playing tennis professionally for over seven years now, having joined the ATP Tour circuit in 2003. The right-handed player is currently coached by Marian Vajda.
Novak Djokovic first played at the Miami Masters in 2006, three years after joining the professional circuit. He was ranked World Number 66 at the time, and could not make it past the second round of the tournament.
However, he returned to the hard courts of Florida the following year as World Number 10 and proceeded to wow both fans and critics. Djokovic cruised through the tournament with ease, defeating players such as Daniele Bracciali,
Michael Llodra, Feliciano Lopez, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray without dropping a single set. He reached the final against Guillermo Canas, and added another feather to his cap by winning his first Miami Masters title in three sets.
However, Nole could not duplicate the result next year. Although he was ranked World Number 3, the Serb suffered an embarassing defeat at the hands of South African pro Kevin Anderson in the second round.
Djokovic redeemed himself in 2009, when he was seeded third at the event yet again. The right-handed player received a bye in the first round, and went on to defeat players Frank Dancevic, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Tomas Berdych
and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga without dropping a single set. The first set which he lost was in the semi-final against Roger Federer, who admitted defeat in three sets. Djokovic moved on to the title match against Britain's Number 1, Andy Murray. Unfortunately for
Nole, the Scot was in rare form and ousted him in straight sets to win the title.
Novak Djokovic's showing at last year's Sony Ericsson Open was quite dismal. Despite the fact that he was at his career-high ranking of World Number 2, he bypassed the first round only to be defeated by Belgian player Olivier
Rochus in the second round. Rochus was ranked over 55 spots lower than Djokovic at the time.
However, 2011 has been Djokovic's best season so far. He began his campaign at the Australian Open, eliminating all his competition to win the first Grand Slam of the year with just one dropped set. He went on to win the
Dubai tournament, scoring a win against World Number 2 Roger Federer in the final. In the first Masters event of the year at Indian Wells, Djokovic enjoyed another successful final run. Defeating both Federer and Nadal in the semis and final respectively,
Djokovic lifted his third tour title for the year.
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