Djokovic Dominates; Nadal, Federer In Action Wednesday At Monte Carlo
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Novak Djokovic opened his Monte Carlo title defense with a blistering 6-1, 6-0 rout over Albert Montanes. The World No. 2 needed just 45 minutes to take down the Spanish veteran.
“For the first match on clay, it was great,” said Djokovic. “I lost only one game, so there were not too many flaws in my game that I could recall. On the other side, I’ve had an opponent who is a specialist on this surface, but he hasn’t played even close to his highest level. He was making a lot of unforced errors.
“I was just trying to use the court well, not allow him to get into a rhythm. I was changing the angles. I was coming to the net, being aggressive. Just very good first match.”
Next for Novak is the Gael Monfils-Pablo Carreno Busta winner on Thursday. Monfils ousted Kevin Anderson while the young Spaniard, playing as a “lucky loser”, toppled Ivan Dodig.
Also in second round play, David Ferrer had no problems with Jeremy Chardy beating the Frenchman 6-3, 6-0. Tomas Berdych also eased past Dmitry Tursunov 7-5, 6-4 and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga posted one of his better wins of this season beating Philipp Kohlschreiber in three sets 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.
“I was tired so it was a bit complicated for me,” said Tsonga. “Fortunately I had an early break in the first set and I was able to hold my serve. But I knew it was going to be tough. Then I had this letdown in the second set. I was able to hang in there in the third set, and he ended up letting it go. It’s maybe because I practised too much or I didn’t manage the amount of effort I made.”
Grigor Dimitrov, Andreas Seppi and Marin Cilic were also first round winners.
Tomorrow, eight time champion Rafael Nadal returns as does Roger Federer who is seeking his first Monte Carlo title.
Stanislas Wawrinka also makes his clay debut against Cilic in what could be the best match of the day.
WEDNESDAY MONTE CARLO SCHEDULE
COURT CENTRAL start 10:30 am
R Bautista Agut (ESP) vs [10] F Fognini (ITA)
R Stepanek (CZE) vs [4] [WC] R Federer (SUI)
[1] R Nadal (ESP) vs [Q] T Gabashvili (RUS)
[3] S Wawrinka (SUI) vs M Cilic (CRO)
COURT DES PRINCES start 10:30 am
Y Lu (TPE) vs [8] M Raonic (CAN)
[11] T Robredo (ESP) vs J Benneteau (FRA)
[12] G Dimitrov (BUL) vs [Q] A Ramos (ESP)
G Monfils (FRA) vs [LL] P Carreno Busta (ESP)
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