Novak Djokovic wins first match since birth of his son

October 29, 2014 08:08 am | Updated May 23, 2016 06:27 pm IST - PARIS

Serbia's Novak Djokovic returns the ball to German Philipp Kohlschreiber during their first round match at the ATP World Tour Masters tennis tournament at Bercy stadium in Paris, France on Tuesday.

Serbia's Novak Djokovic returns the ball to German Philipp Kohlschreiber during their first round match at the ATP World Tour Masters tennis tournament at Bercy stadium in Paris, France on Tuesday.

In his first match since the birth of his first child, defending champion Novak Djokovic stayed on course to finish the season as No. 1 by defeating Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of the Paris Masters on Tuesday.

The top-seeded Djokovic took a 5-1 lead in the first set and broke his German opponent in the opening game of the second.

“Very good match considering the fact that I didn’t play indoors for a year,” Djokovic said. “I struggled a little bit physically. It was a pretty tough couple of weeks.”

Fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, Fernando Verdasco of Spain and Kevin Anderson of South Africa also reached the third round.

Berdych, the 2005 champion, overcame French wild card entrant Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-2, Verdasco outlasted Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, and Anderson fired 12 aces in his 6-4, 7-6 (8) win over Santiago Giraldo of Colombia.

Djokovic hit 23 winners to 14 for Kohlschreiber. He travelled to Paris without his wife, Jelena, and their baby boy, Stefan, who was born last week.

At the end of his match, the Wimbledon champion wrote some words in Serbian on the lens of the TV camera.

“I sent a message to my boy, that I love him and that I play for him,” a smiling Djokovic said.

Djokovic was congratulated by his parents after the match.

“I’m really glad that they are here,” Djokovic said. “I’m glad because usually they don’t come very often. First couple of years of my career, they were there pretty much at all the Grand Slams. But now they have too many things to do.”

Meanwhile, Tommy Robredo of Spain, Belgium’s David Goffin and Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay won their first-round matches along with Frenchmen Gael Monfils, Jeremy Chardy and Lucas Pouille.

Robredo outlasted Vasek Pospisil of Canada 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (5). Pospisil won nine more points than Robredo, but the Spaniard made 20 fewer unforced errors.

Goffin, the runner-up at the Swiss Indoors last week, beat Lukas Rosol of the Czech Rpublic 6-4, 6-3.

Cuevas was leading 7-6 (3), 1-0 when Leonardo Mayer of Argentina retired because of a back injury. The Uruguayan player is enjoying the best season of his career after winning two titles this summer.

Monfils, a two-time runner-up at the Paris Masters, cruised past Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-1, 6-4, Chardy edged Kenny De Schepper 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) in an all-French match, and qualifier Pouille, ranked 176th in the world, stunned Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 6-1, 6-4.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.