Novak Djokovic defeats Lukasz Kubot; moves into the third round of Internazionali BNL d’Italia
Recently crowned at the Madrid Masters, Novak Djokovic of Serbia showed no signs of slowing down in Rome as he tore away the Pole like a tornado. World number two opened
his campaign at the second round of Internazionali BNL d’Italia by routing Lukasz Kubot of Poland on Wednesday afternoon. With this win, the Serbian has taken his match winning streak to 33 consecutive matches since the Australian Open.
It was a clean sweep by the Serbian as he displayed admirable presence of mind in the match. The Pole had his chances in the match but his vigorous opponent didn’t allow
him to capitalize on them at any point. Kubot had been relatively competitive with the Serb in his prior two meetings, but this time he completely looked out of form and couldn’t win even a single game. In fact the Pole went to deuce only once but his opponent
had the advantage and never allowed him to break back. The Serb made Kubot heavily sweat and didn’t allow him to play critical points.
Djokovic made a brilliant start to the match and broke Kubot to take an early advantage. The Serbian kept his errors to the minimum and recorded 100 percent breakpoint conversion
rate to restrict the pole to take the first set. The Serbian gave top notch performance and unleashed flurry of classy shots to take six games in a row to clinch the first set with a bagel. The Serbian won a total of 25 points to Kubot’s 9 and entered the
second set in style.
Kubot, who is best known as a serve-and-volley specialist, didn’t lose hope and entered the final set with much more confidence. Kubot raised the level of play which changed
the rhythm of the game from Kubot being the more aggressive, to the Serbian being in a little anxiety. He worked hard and finally managed to get on scoreboard with a hold of 1-3. The pole actually took care of his three service games and raised his first serve
accuracy to fifteen percent, but it had no kind of effect on his opponent who looked totally calm and patient on the other side of the net. Kubot displayed his magnificent tennis skills, trying to change things up, but was passed by a double fault on the game
point. He then paid the price for serving only 16 of 24 first serves in the game and was broken by a forehand return.
The Serbian didn’t register an ace or double-fault whereas his opponent finished off with one ace and three double-faults. Djokovic now moves on ahead to face Stanislas
Wawrinka of Switzerland, who beat Filippo Volandri during the second-round action. The Serbian is hoping to extend his match winning streak to 34 matches when he square off against the Swiss on Thursday. Except for an extreme U-turn in Wawrinka’s form, their
match should not be a much of a contest.
Tags: