Novak Djokovic rallies past Fabio Fognini into the second round – London Olympics
Second seed, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, bounced back after a slow start to beat the 66th ranked player from Italy, Fabio Fognini, in a rain-struck first round match at London Olympics.
The Serbian star lost the opening set but came back in style to topple Fognini 6-7(7), 6-2, 6-2 and reach the round of 32 on Sunday.
The contest was started in a steady manner by both players, as there was no break of serve in the opening seven games, taking the score to 4-3 in favour of Djokovic. The Serbian hit a blow to Fognini in the eighth to move ahead
5-3. The world number two had a set point at 40-30 in the ninth game but failed to utilise that, losing two in a row to square off the proceedings at 5-5. Both players held their following serve to take the score to 6-6 and force a tie-breaker. Djokovic had
two more set points later on but the Serbian squandered both of them to even it out at 7-7. That was the moment, when it started to rain and play was suspended. When it re-started after a break of just over three and a half hours, Fognini grabbed two successive
points to seal it 7-6(7).
Fognini could not carry the winning momentum into the second set, as he lost his serve in the third game and failed to strike back, going down 1-3. The Italian was broken again by Djokovic in the seventh, losing it 2-6
The story of decider was exactly similar to the previous set, as Djokovic struck in the third and seventh game, capitalising on the double advantage to seal it 6-2.
The Serbian said that stoppage due to rain affected his game. The 25-year-old shared, "I was thinking about those two points and the way I should play them. But of course this is a specific surface. Everything happens very fast."
Djokovic was playing his first match after losing to Federer in the semi-finals of Wimbledon at the start of this month. He added, "I haven’t played an official match since Wimbledon, so it took me a set and a half to really get
into the rhythm. Obviously the rain delay affected the game, and I wasn’t sharp enough after the rain delay."
When asked about his Olympics experience, the Serbian replied, "It's really an honour and a privilege to be part of the Olympic Games. Although we would wish to be part of the Olympic Village and feel that atmosphere beside the
best athletes in the world."
Djokovic will either play Andy Roddick of USA or Slovakia’s Martin Klizan in the second round.
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