BY RIZWAN REHMAT
DOHA: World number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia and the world’s tallest player Ivo Karlovic of Croatia yesterday posted quick wins to set up a mouth-watering quarter-finals clash at the $1.2m Qatar ExxonMobil Open.
Djokovic, the top seed with seven Grand Slam title wins, yesterday produced slick tennis to crush Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky in straight sets. Djokovic won 6-2, 6-1 in just 61 minutes.
Karlovic, who also played his match on the Centre Court, beat Georgian qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 to reach his third quarter-finals berth at the Qatar Open, the season’s first event.
Djokovic, who battled fever before landing in Doha, was quick to wish Serbian fans Merry Christmas after his fourth career win over the Ukrainian opponent. Serbs do not celebrate Christmas on December 25th, but on January 7th.
“I want to wish Merry Christmas to everybody who celebrates it today. For the rest of the people, thank you very much for coming out and supporting tennis in this fashion. It was a pleasure to play tennis in front of you again,” Djokovic said with his trademark smile yesterday.
“I had never played in Doha, in Qatar before. Now I see how much I am enjoying here and how much my family is enjoying here. It feels comfortable. I will definitely be coming back in the next years,” the affable Serbian added.
Djokovic, who is also playing the doubles in Doha to gain match practice, broke Stakhovsky in games four and eight to take the first set in just 38 minutes. In the second set, Djokovic reeled off slick returns to break the Ukrainian in games four and seven to seal his win in straight sets.
The Serbian top seed produced 25 winners as Stakhovsky, who called time out in game one of the first set after twisting his ankle, struggled with 29 unforced errors in the second-round clash.
“Not playing Sergiy for a while, I didn’t know what to expect,” Djokovic said. “I knew he’s going to come out, be aggressive, try to mix up the pace. And that’s what he did. He sliced well at the start
of the match. I didn’t play so (well). I didn’t start the match so great, but I managed to hold my serve on 4-2,” he added.
“And from that moment on it felt as a different match. I felt I was more swinging through the ball on the court and just playing more confidently,” the Serbian added.
In the day’s first match, 35-year-old Karlovic blasted 19 aces to beat Basilashvili in 1 hour 22 minutes on the Centre Court at Khalifa Tennis Complex.
Karlovic, 35, has now hit 9041 aces in his career. On Monday he hit 27 aces in his first-round match against Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic.
The Croatian, who stands 6’ 11” tall and wears size 16 shoes, has Djokovic thinking.
“We all know how Ivo is serving. He is one of the best servers ever to play the game. Hope that he can miss some volleys,” Djokovic said.
In other matches yesterday, fourth seed David Ferrer of Spain crushed compatriot and friend Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-2 in 77 minutes while Germany’s Dustin Brown edged compatriot Jana-Lennard Struff 7-6, 6-4 in 85 minutes.
It was Ferrer’s 12th win over Verdasco in 19 meetings on the ATP Tour.
“We played a lot of times, Fernando and me,” Ferrer, 32, said. “I think our career is similar, playing (for) 13 or 14 years on the tour. On the court we try to do our best and after the court we are friends,” Ferrer added.
When asked about his next opponent Brown, Ferrer said: “Dustin Brown, he’s unpredictable. I have to be consistent with my first serve, because with my second, he will put a lot of pressure.”
Also yesterday, Italy’s Andreas Seppi beat Brazil’s Joao Souza 7-5, 6-2. It was first meeting between Seppi and Souza on the ATP Tour. In the quarter-finals, Seppi will play Croatia’s Ivan Dodig who yesterday beat German qualifier Michael Berrer 7-6 (7-1), 6-2 in 82 minutes.
Third seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic eased past Slovakian qualifier Blaz Kavcic 6-1, 6-2 in just 58 minutes. Berdych, ranked seventh in the world, will take on sixth seed Richard Gasquet of France in the quarter-finals today.
Gasquet yesterday beat Italy’s Simone Bolelli 6-3, 6-2 in 62 minutes. Also yesterday, Djokovic paired up with Filip Krajinovic to beat Colombian duo of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 6-3, 7-5.
“I’m glad Filip and I played and we won against very good doubles players that play only doubles and they are specialists for the doubles,” Djokovic said. “I enjoy it (playing doubles) very much. I do. I think it also helps my singles game in terms of serve and return and reaction,” he added.
Rafael Nadal also advanced in the doubles when he joined Juan Monaco of Argentina to beat Germany’s Benjamin Becker and Artem Sitak of New Zealand 2-6, 6-3, 10-6.
In a shocking start to the new season, Nadal was sent crashing out of the singles on Tuesday.
THE PENINSULA
