Belgrade, April 22: Novak Djokovic shrugged off the disappointment of a third-round exit in Monte-Carlo with a dominant 6-1, 6-3 win against Soonwoo Kwon to reach the quarter-finals of the Serbia Open.
The World No 1 was sharp from the first game of the match on Wednesday, showing no residue from his loss against Daniel Evans last week. The home favourite broke the South Korean’s serve five times to advance after 68 minutes.
“I thought I played very well from the very beginning, except that service game that I lost at 5-2 in the second [set]. I thought it was a pretty flawless performance,” Djokovic said.
The Serbian, who won this tournament in two of his three appearances (2009 and 2011), made it clear with his performance against Kwon that he is the strong favourite to claim a third trophy in Belgrade.
This was the pair’s first ATP Head2Head meeting, and Djokovic, who is now 11-1 on the season, immediately put pressure on the World No. 85 by breaking serve in his first return game.
Kwon showed his fighting spirit and aggressive baseline game, but Djokovic had an answer for almost everything.
The Serbian got another early break in the second set, at 1-1, sprinting forward for a drop shot and finding an acute angle for a winner.
The South Korean earned his first break point at 2-5 in the second set but it was too late, as the top seed broke in the next game to seal his victory.
Djokovic will next play countryman Miomir Kecmanovic, who battled past French qualifier Arthur Rinderknech 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 earlier in the day. (UNI)
