Novak Djokovic dismisses Andreas Seppi in the second round – Western & Southern Open 2012
World number two, Novak Djokovic, overcame a slow start to beat the 27th ranked, Andreas Seppi, in straight sets 7-6(4), 6-2 in the second round of Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati on Wednesday.
It took the Serbian star an hour and 30 minutes to throw his Italian opponent out of the event.
Djokovic and Seppi put on a brilliant display of serves in the first set, as they did not allow each other to break serve even once till the end, squaring off the proceedings at 6-6 and taking it to a tie-breaker. The runner up
of last year, Djokovic, attained a 2-0 lead at the start and maintained it till the end to win 7-6(4).
The Serbian player gave a solid performance on his serve, banging in three aces and not committing any double fault. The 25-year-old converted 18 of the 21 first and 11 of the 18 second deliveries into points. However, the Monte-Carlo
resident did not do well on returns, losing 18 of the 28 first and 16 of the 26 second reply points in the opener.
Djokovic and Seppi held their opening serve to level the score at 1-1. The Serbian player made breakthrough in the third and fifth game, consolidating on them to race to a 5-1 lead. The five-time Grand Slam champion did not allow
Seppi to come back, sealing it 6-2.
The Serbian contender pounded three aces and clinched nine of the 13 first serve points in the second set. The 6ft 2in tall was almost flawless on his second deliveries and returns, pocketing seven out of seven and eight of the
11 points on them respectively.
Djokovic was not satisfied with his performance, as he said after the match, "I don't think I have done anything special [today]. Really just trying to put another ball more in the court than my opponent today was enough to win.
Obviously not very satisfied with the performance. I will have to play much better than I did today in order to go far."
The Serbian star added, "I was just trying to get used to conditions, trying to keep the ball on the court and hit one more than my opponent. This happens in every first match, you have to get used to quite different conditions.
I came in late from Canada and it feels a lot different here."
Djokovic will face former world number three, Nikolay Davydenko, in the third round.
Tags: