The world no. 1 Novak Djokovic will be looking to get back to winning ways in the upcoming Sony Open after being defeated by Juan Martin Del Potro in the semi final of BNP Paribas Open.
Djokovic was defeated by Del Potro by 6-4, 4-6, 4-6.
This was Djokovic’s first defeat in the last four and half months. The last time that he had lost a match was against Sam Querrey in October last year.
In the Sony Open, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will not be participating. Nadal wants to give his knees a bit of rest after playing quite a few tournaments recently. Federer also wants to have some time off.
In the absence of these two players, Djokovic has a great chance of going all the way in the Sony Open. The only player who can be a threat for Djokovic in this tournament is Andy Murray.
Djokovic has won this tournament three times before. So, he has fond memories of this tournament.
Djokovic will start his campaign on Friday. His first match will be against Lukas Rosol of Czech Republic. Rosol is the same player who had defeated Rafael Nadal in the second round of Wimbledon Championships last year.
When asked about his chances in Sony Open, Djokovic said, “I have got a lot of success in this tournament in the past. So, I will enter this tournament in a very good frame of mind.”
When asked about his defeat in the BNP Paribas Open, Djokovic said, “I didn’t play well that day and it happens once in a while when you play at this level. It’s impossible to keep winning matches all the time. You have some poor days like this. But, I put those things out of my mind straight away. I don’t like thinking about defeats.”
Novak Djokovic has defeated Radek Stepanek of Czech Republic in the third round of the Australian Open 2013. Djokovic won the match in the straight sets by 6-4, 6-3, 7-5. This victory took Djokovic into the pre quarter finals.
This was the ninth match between these two players and Djokovic defeated Stepanek for the eighth time.
In the first set, both the players had a decent start. Neither of the two players succeeded in getting a breakthrough in the first 9 games. At the end of the ninth game, the score was 5-4 in the favour of Djokovic. The Serbian superstar gave Stepanek the first blow in the 10th game and that was the end of the set.
Djokovic continued to flourish in the next two sets as well. He held his entire serve in both the sets and broke his opponent’s service once in each set to wrap up the match.
In the post match interview, Djokovic said, “I have played against Stepanek before. He is a tough player and he loves playing at big stages. So, I knew that it was not going to be an easy match for me.”
“When you play against a quality player, you don’t get too many breakpoints. So, it’s important to make sure that you capitalize on most of the breakpoints that you get. That’s what I did. I capitalized on every opportunity that came my way.”
“I have played very well so far, but, it’s only midway through the tournament. There are some important matches coming up. So, I need to continue playing in the same way.”
In the next round, Djokovic will take on Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland. Wawrinka made his way into the fourth round by securing victory over Sam Querrey of America.
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February 2, 2013 9:46 pm | 
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Novak Djokovic has defeated David Ferrer of Spain in his first match in the Mubadala Tennis Championship on Friday. Djokovic won the match in the straight sets by 6-0, 6-3. With this win, Djokovic has reached the final of the tournament.
Djokovic had got a bye in the first round, so, he directly played the semi final. He looked in amazing touch and just thrashed Ferrer. Djokovic had won this tournament in the last season as well and the way he has started this time around, it seems that it would be very difficult to stop him from defending the title. He took almost an hour to win the match and knock Ferrer out of the competition.
Djokovic started the match in an aggressive fashion and he didn’t let Ferrer win even a single game in the first set. He broke Ferrer’s service thrice in the first set and won the set by 6-0.
In the second set, Ferrer played a bit better, but, still, he still didn’t manage to give a tough fight to Djokovic. The world no. 1 got a couple of breakthroughs in the second set as well and wrapped up the match by winning the second set by 6-3.
After winning the match, Djokovic said, “I love to play here. The conditions over here are amazing. The weather is neither too cold nor too hot and the surface is fantastic as well.
“Frankly speaking, I had expected myself to be a bit rusty as it’s my first game of the season. But, surprisingly, I hit the ball as fluently as ever.”
In the final match, Djokovic will take on Nicolas Almagro of Spain. Almagro made his way into the final by defeating the Serbian no. 2 Janko Tipsarevic by 2-6, 7-6(7/3), 6-2.