MADRID, 10 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic beat the Frenchman Corentin Moutet (6-3, 6-1) this Friday to make his debut on the right foot in the Rome tournament, the fifth Masters 1000 of the season, from less to more until he unsettled a rival with a serious internal war.
The world number one shook off a debut at the Foro Italico that looked dangerous in the first games. The Frenchman hit with everything and took advantage of the Serbian’s disorder to go 1-3, but his temperament and the increasing play of his prestigious rival were taking him out of the game without remedy.
‘Nole’, six-time champion in Rome, resumed the European tour on dirt after being absent in Madrid and after making the semi-finals in Monte Carlo, with some of the mixed feelings he left in the Principality. Failures with his serve that cost him two breaks, although he quickly remedied it while Moutet despaired on his own.
The Frenchman did not take advantage of that lapse of Djokovic who gave up his first two serves, but went from 1-3 to 6-3 in favor of a number one chip. The one from Belgrade continued to miss the occasional ball, but he hit with great intention, depth and forcefulness, forcing the defense into a Moutet that had no response.
The Frenchman tangled with the chair umpire, the legendary Carlos Bernardes, and with his bench, with a level of excitement that made it impossible to find the perfect game that number one demanded. He resisted breaking the racket, his cell phone even rang at the beginning of the second set, but Djokovic put on the tennis spectacle.
After making it 2-0 and asking them to fix a hole in the court, the champion of 24 ‘bigs’ broke the ‘lucky loser’ twice more, retaken from the previous one, (6-1) to emerge stronger from his Roman debut . The world number one, with the option of consolidating his throne in the absence of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz in Rome, will now face the Chilean Alejandro Tabilo in the third round.