Novak Djokovic downs Kevin Anderson to reach the third round of Mutua Madrid Open
World number two, Serbian Novak Djokovic cruised past South African Kevin Anderson, ranked 35th in the world, in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of Mutua Madrid Open at the La Caja Mágica in Madrid on Wednesday.
It took Djokovic one hour and 40 minutes to undo his opponent.
Djokovic and Anderson held their serve in the first seven game of the opening set, taking the score to 4-3 in favour of the Serbian. Djokovic broke the South African in the eighth game and served out the set at 5-3.
The Serbian hit 58 percent of the first serves in the opening set, winning 86 percent of the points on them. In comparison, Anderson’s first serve percentage was slightly lower as he delivered 50 percent of the first serves and
captured 82 percent of the points on them in the first set. The South African failed to save one of the four break points he faced in the opening set.
In the second set, Djokovic broke his opponent in the seventh game and held his serve in the next game to take a 5-3 lead. Anderson managed to hold his serve in the ninth game to reduce Djokovic’s lead to 5-4. Serving for the match
at 5-4, Djokovic received his first match point at 40-30 and hit a huge first serve to force an error from Anderson, clinching the set 6-4.
The Serbian fired two aces but hit the same number of double faults in the second set. The right-handed kept his first serve percentage at 81 percent and converted 80 percent of the first serves into points in the second set. While,
Anderson made full use of his powerful serves, hitting five aces and 73 percent of the first serves. The South African grabbed 64 percent of the first service points in the second set.
In the post match press conference, Djokovic said, "If your playing a good server like Anderson, it’s a big effort to make a break and I tried very hard, it was a lot of work but I did twice every set which was enough."
With this win, the Serbian extended his winning streak to 28 matches this year. The 23-year-old is now one victory away from Ivan Lendl’s feat of 29 wins at the beginning of 1986.
Djokovic said, commenting on his streak, "Well it's a great honour of course it’s very flattering to be part of that elite but it’s not my priority. I’m really taking one match at a time and I hope I can win.”
The Serbian will face world number 29 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain in the third round.
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