Djokovic stutters into Vienna second round
Thursday, October 11, 2007
TOP seed Novak Djokovic made a faltering start to his first ATP match in a month on Tuesday, beating America's Robby Ginepri 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the Vienna Open.
The world No 3, who has not played on the tour since his September 9 US Open final defeat by Roger Federer, dropped serve three times in the Austrian capital before finally booking his place in the second round.
Fortunately for Djokovic, the American world No 70 fared even worse on his own serve, failing to hold a single game during the opening set.
A further break of Ginepri's serve at the start of the second set was enough to see the Serb through.
Djokovic will next face Czech lucky loser Tomas Zib who upset Germany's Florian Mayer 6-1, 6-4 earlier in the day.
Former world No 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero also booked a place in the second round at the expense of fifth seed Guillermo Canas.
Exacting revenge for a second round defeat at this year's Miami Masters Series, the Spaniard came from 5-2 down in the third set to beat his Argentine opponent 3-6, 6-3, 7-6.
TWICE champion James Blake fought back from the brink of defeat to beat Jonas Bjorkman 6-7, 7-5, 6-3 in the Stockholm Open first round on Tuesday.
A fine forehand pass down the line on the first match point handed the American world number seven the win against the 35-year-old Swedish doubles specialist, who won the singles title here a decade ago.
A fired-up Bjorkman took the first set 7-3 in the tiebreak, having punished some poor serving by Blake.
Playing superb tennis reminiscent of the style that took him to fourth in the world rankings in 1997, Bjorkman broke Blake to 4-2 in the second set but then allowed the American back into the match by failing to hold his own.
Leading 5-4, Bjorkman came to within two points of winning when Blake double-faulted twice to 30-30 but the American managed to hold his serve with some fine baseline play.
Blake broke Bjorkman in the next game with a cross-court forehand and then held serve to 7-5 to take the match into a decider. In the final set, he broke Bjorkman again with a well placed forehand return to 4-3 and again to 6-3 to seal the match.
Earlier, Tommy Haas beat Olivier Rochus 6-4, 6-1, his third win in as many meetings with the Belgian. Reuters
The world No 3, who has not played on the tour since his September 9 US Open final defeat by Roger Federer, dropped serve three times in the Austrian capital before finally booking his place in the second round.
Fortunately for Djokovic, the American world No 70 fared even worse on his own serve, failing to hold a single game during the opening set.
A further break of Ginepri's serve at the start of the second set was enough to see the Serb through.
Djokovic will next face Czech lucky loser Tomas Zib who upset Germany's Florian Mayer 6-1, 6-4 earlier in the day.
Former world No 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero also booked a place in the second round at the expense of fifth seed Guillermo Canas.
Exacting revenge for a second round defeat at this year's Miami Masters Series, the Spaniard came from 5-2 down in the third set to beat his Argentine opponent 3-6, 6-3, 7-6.
TWICE champion James Blake fought back from the brink of defeat to beat Jonas Bjorkman 6-7, 7-5, 6-3 in the Stockholm Open first round on Tuesday.
A fine forehand pass down the line on the first match point handed the American world number seven the win against the 35-year-old Swedish doubles specialist, who won the singles title here a decade ago.
A fired-up Bjorkman took the first set 7-3 in the tiebreak, having punished some poor serving by Blake.
Playing superb tennis reminiscent of the style that took him to fourth in the world rankings in 1997, Bjorkman broke Blake to 4-2 in the second set but then allowed the American back into the match by failing to hold his own.
Leading 5-4, Bjorkman came to within two points of winning when Blake double-faulted twice to 30-30 but the American managed to hold his serve with some fine baseline play.
Blake broke Bjorkman in the next game with a cross-court forehand and then held serve to 7-5 to take the match into a decider. In the final set, he broke Bjorkman again with a well placed forehand return to 4-3 and again to 6-3 to seal the match.
Earlier, Tommy Haas beat Olivier Rochus 6-4, 6-1, his third win in as many meetings with the Belgian. Reuters
Business Besides Oil
