Novak Djokovic struggles past Daniel Gimeno-Traver into the third round – Mutua Madrid Open 2012
Defending champion, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, survived a scare before overcoming a tough challenge from world number 137, Daniel Gimeno-Traver, in his opening match at the Mutua Madrid Open in Spain on Tuesday.
It took the top seed, Djokovic, an hour and 46 minutes to beat the home player in three sets 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 and advance to the round of 16.
Playing his first official match on the blue clay courts, the Serbian was badly troubled by the new surface. Speaking during the post match press conference, he lashed out, "It's impossible to move. I hit maybe five balls, the
rest went just trying to put the ball into the court. I was relying on serve and getting free points from his unforced errors.”
He kept on criticising the new surface, "That was not tennis, either I need football shoes or some advice on how to play on this court. I cannot find the words to describe this court. It's really tough to play like this on a centre court. We cannot change anything
this year, but my first impressions are not good. I don't want to be the one complaining, but I say honestly what I feel.”
Djokovic struck the first blow by breaking the Spaniard in the fourth game of the opening set and won his next serve to gain a 4-1 advantage. Gimeno-Traver failed to hold again in the eighth and went down 2-6.
In the second set, the Spaniard made amendments in his style of play and started to make the most out from Djokovic’s problems due to the surface of the court. Gimeno-Traver snatched breaks in the third and fifth game, capitalising
on the double blow to race to a 5-1 lead. The world number one avoided some embarrassment by reducing the trail to 2-5 but that was all, as the Spaniard closed it at 6-2.
Djokovic bounced back in the decider, claiming a breakthrough in the sixth game and holding his following serve to attain a 5-2 lead. The Serbian finished the contest in style, as he did not lose even a single point in the ninth
game to clinch it 6-3.
The Belgrade, Serbia resident delivered a total of seven aces and captured 35 of the 40 points on the first serves in the match. Djokovic is slated to meet Swiss contender, Stanislas Wawrinka, or Austria’s Jurgen Melzer in the
third round.
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