SAPPI SENT HOME

The Serbian superstar, Novak Djokovic, has defeated Andreas Sappi of Italy in the second round of the Western and Southern Open at Cincinnati. Djokovic won the match with ease. It took him just 90 minutes to thrash Sappi in the straight sets by 7-6(4), 6-2. Djokovic looked a bit rusty at the start of the match and he was not hitting the ball that well in the first few games. But, as the match progressed, he settled into his groove and played some delightful forehand shots. With this victory, Djokovic has made his way to the third round where he will play against Nikolay Davydenko of Russia.

In the first set, Djokovic was given a very tough fight by Sappi. The Italian player didn’t allow Djokovic to get even a single breakthrough in the first set. At the end of the 12^th game, the scores were tied at 6-6 and the set went into the tie breaker. Djokovic made a very good start to the tie breaker and won the first two points. He maintained that lead till the end of the tie breaker and won the first set by 7-6. In the second set, Djokovic looked a different layer altogether. Both the players held their service in the first two games of the second set and the scores were levelled at 1-1 at the end of the second game. Djokovic broke Sappi’s service in the 3^rd and the 5^th game and won the next 4 games in a row to make the score 5-1. The Italian player held his service in the 7^th game, but, that was too little, too late. Djokovic served out the next game to wrap up the match.

Djokovic didn’t serve any double fault and smashed 3 aces in the match. Djokovic had got a bye in the first round, so, this was his first match of the competition. In the post match interview, the Serbian player said that he has arrived here pretty late and didn’t have much practice before the match. So, it took him some time to get adapted to the conditions here. Hopefully, he would perform better in the further matches.