Novak Djokovic began with a runaway win at the Rotterdam Open on Tuesday, crushing Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-2, 4-1 in his opening match as the Ukrainian had to quit after 54 minutes with a knee injury.
The top-seeded Serb is playing this week for the first time since a bout of indigestion cost him an Australian Open quarter-final against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
“I’m motivated, I want to do well this week,” said Djokovic, a semi-finalist in his last Rotterdam appearance in 2007. “I did well at the Open and had a good end of season in 2009. My lifetime goal is to achieve No. 1. I’m used to the pressure, but I’m trying to just enjoy my tennis.”
The world No. 2 will next take on inspired Swiss Marco Chiudinelli, who upset 2008 champion Michael Llodra of France 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (8/6) in two-and-a-half hours.
Chiudinelli, a close friend of Roger Federer, was making his main draw debut at the Ahoy Stadium after failing to qualify in 2005 and 2007.
Llodra unleashed 16 aces and broke twice, but the 54th-ranked Swiss got to the French serve on five occasions to make the difference.
Djokovic defeated Stakhovsky, ranked 69 in the world, for the second time in eight months after a victory in the second round at Roland Garros last May.
The Serb won his fifth match of the season against one defeat, without having dropped a set against his opponents. Djokovic managed breaks in the third game of each set to set up victory, before Stakhovsky ended it early.
Frenchman Julien Benneteau claimed the week’s first seeded victim with his 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Ivan Ljubicic.
The No. 7 Croatian went out in 1 hour, 39 minutes despite 11 aces.
Turkish qualifier Marsel Ilhan won his second match of the season with a defeat of Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-1, 6-4. Theo de Bakker of the Netherlands overcame Czech Jan Hajek 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.
■BRAZIL OPEN
AP, COSTA DO SAUIPE, BRAZIL
Top-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero won his first match of the year in a two-hour struggle with Argentina’s Eduardo Schwank 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 at the Brazil Open on Tuesday.
Ferrero, who had made opening-round exits at Auckland and the Australian Open, had to break Schwank four times just to win the second set. The Argentine reached the quarters last week in Santiago.
Ferrero, the 2007 runner-up, moved onto a second-round clash with another veteran, Chile’s Nicolas Massu, the 2006 champion who took nearly three hours to beat Brazilian qualifier Rogerio Dutra Da Silva 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
Thomaz Bellucci, fresh from his second career title on Sunday in Santiago, hit 10 aces in beating Brazilian countryman Thiago Alves 6-2, 7-5. Bellucci reached the Brazil Open final last year and only tiredness may prevent a repeat.
Fourth-seeded Igor Andreev also posted his first win of the year after two defeats when he beat Potito Starace of Italy 6-2, 6-2.
Andreev also finally won at his third attempt at the Brazil Open.
Fifth-seeded Victor Hanescu of Romania defeated Brazil’s Joao Souza 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, while No. 6 Pablo Cuevas won 6-4, 6-3 against Filippo Volandri of Italy.
Juan Ignacio Chela, who has reached at least the quarter-finals three times, was pushed all the way by Peter Luczak of Australia 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-4.
Seventh-seeded Horacio Zeballos retired with a hip injury while trailing Marcel Granollers of Spain 7-5, 3-0.
Other winners included qualifiers Rui Machado of Portugal and Carlos Berlocq of Argentina, as well as Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Italian Fabio Fognini.
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