MADRID, 12 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic defeated (7-6 (5), 6-2) this Friday the Argentine Tomás Martín Etcheverry to start the tournament in Rome with victory, the fifth Masters 1,000 of the season, a good debut on Italian soil that appointment in the third round with the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
The number one in the world, until the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz debuted this Saturday and snatched it away, had a hectic debut at the Foro Italico in an intense first set, with some stomach discomfort, but no elbow problems that had been giving him trouble. . ‘Nole’, with only one victory in Monte Carlo and another in Banja Luka (Bosnia), saved a compromised ‘tie-break’ and in the second set stepped on the accelerator.
The 22 ‘big’ champion, absent in Madrid, hardened himself first in the Italian capital, where he defends the title and hopes to adapt his game to clay before going to Roland Garros. In his first duel against the Argentine, Djokovic started the break down and needed an hour and 15 minutes to get ahead, winning the first set with the last four points of the tiebreak.
Already in the second set, history changed and it was the Serbian who began by breaking the Argentine. ‘Nole’ found winning shots, drop shots, a good exchange, long rest and serve to knock down an Etcheverry who endured what he could against his idol. In the third round, the man from Belgrade will face a Dimitrov whose morale has food with a 10-1 in direct duels.