Djokovic makes no mistakes in win at Sydney
January 14th, 2009 Posted in Tennis newsTop-seeded Novak Djokovic rebounded from a first-round loss at Brisbane last week with an easy 6-1, 6-2 win over Paul-Henri Mathieu on Wednesday at the Sydney International.
On Jan. 6, Djokovic lost in straight sets to Ernests Gulbis of Latvia at the Brisbane International and said he was struggling to find his rhythm with a new racket and wasn’t overly concerned about the loss.
On Wednesday, he backed up that claim with a strong display against Mathieu, of France, in searing heat at the Olympic Park Tennis Centre. Those temperatures should help him set up for his defense at the Australian Open beginning Monday in Melbourne, where, about 500 miles to the south, it tends to get just as equally hot and steamy.
The Serbian’s serve still wasn’t perfect Wednesday with the new racket, but he was helped by Mathieu, who was only able to take advantage of three of his seven break-point chances.
Djokovic received a first-round bye along with three other top seeds, and two of them advanced along with him on Wednesday to the quarterfinals – No. 3 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, whom Djokovic beat in the Australian Open final last year, and No. 4 David Nalbandian of Argentina.
Tsonga beat Simone Bolelli of Italy 6-4, 6-1, although Tsonga was troubled by a back and twice received treatment during his match at Ken Rosewall Arena. Nalbandian beat Michael Llodra of France 6-1, 6-3.
Croatia’s Mario Ancic beat seventh-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain 6-2, 6-1 and next plays Djokovic in the quarterfinals. Second-seeded Gilles Simon of France played countryman Richard Gasquet later Wednesday.
Top-seeded Serena Williams of the United States was scheduled to play Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in a quarterfinal match later at the joint ATP-WTA tournament.
