By Rizwan Rehmat
DOHA: World number one Novak Djokovic yesterday barely broke a sweat to beat German qualifier Dustin Brown in straight sets to launch his new season in convincing fashion.
Winner of 11 titles last year, Djokovic was hardly tested against the long-haired German, winning the first-round clash 6-2, 6-2 in just 51 minutes at Khalifa Tennis Complex.
Djokovic’s arch-rival and second seed Rafael Nadal, however, yesterday suffered an embarrassing blow in the doubles along with Fernando Verdasco.
Russia’s Teymuraz Gabashvili and Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas fought back from a set’s deficit to win 6-7, 6-4, 11-9 in 1 hour 44 minutes.
In the day’s other matches, seventh seed Jeremy Chardy hammered Qatari wildcard Mubarak Shannan Zayid 6-1, 6-1 while British qualifier Kyle Edmund crushed Slovakia’s Martin Klizan 6-2, 6-3 in 70 minutes.
In another round of 32 match, Damir Dzumhur beat Marco Cecchinato 6-4, 6-2.
In the day’s feature match-up, Djokovic hit the ground running, winning in less than an hour on Centre Court.
“Yes, of course,” Djokovic said when asked if he was happy with his performance. “It’s been six weeks since I played the last match, so I was very excited to go back to the court and compete and see how I go,” he added.
“Obviously you never know how you’re going to start from the blocks. You can do your best to prepare yourself well, which I did. I think I used the off-season very well to train to get my body in the right shape, and I think it was a very good start,” Djokovic said.
“Considering the weather conditions and everything, I think it was a good performance from my side. Obviously I played a player who I never faced before and somebody that is, first of all, a very charismatic guy, very good for tennis, for sport, and somebody that is unpredictable. Comes up firing with the shots,” Djokovic said.
The 28-year-old Serbian broke Brown three times in each of the two sets as the world number one issued an early season warning to his rivals.
A 132kmph winner from Djokovic supplemented by a couple of long returns from Brown helped the Serbian break his opponent in game two of the first set.
A similar pattern followed in game four when Brown faulted with a couple of unforced errors followed by a long return that saw Djokovic race to a 4-0 lead.
In game seven, Brown broke Djokovic when the Serbian uncharacteristically smashed three returns wide.
Despite the blip in game seven, Djokovic quickly reasserted himself by taking game eight and the set in just 25 minutes.
In the second set, Djokovic broke Brown in game six with the German struggling for range on his returns.
In game eight, Djokovic saw an erratic Brown hand over the set rather tamely when he smashed a return into the net with the Serbian looking in complete control of the proceedings on a chilly evening.
Nadal downplayed his loss ahead of his first-round clash against Pablo Carreno Busta today.
“I have been winning here a lot of years (in the) doubles, so hopefully that’s the good news that I lost this time in doubles that I hope to be ready for singles,” Nadal said yesterday.
“Today’s match was a match that we had a lot of chances and was not the day to win. And that’s it,” he added without elaborating. The Peninsula
