Novak Djokovic passed a tough first test at Indian Wells on Sunday to maintain his perfect record for the season and reach the third round of the year’s first Masters tournament.
The world No. 1 defeated Fabio Fognini 6-0, 5-7, 6-2, the struggles he encountered against the 36th-ranked Italian echoing world No. 3 Andy Murray’s battle to a 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 victory over unheralded Russian Evgeny Donskoy.
Djokovic improved to 14-0 this year, but he was kicking himself for letting control of the match slip away in the second set, when he went up an early break, only for Fognini to get back on serve with a break of his own in the seventh game.
Photo: Reuters
“It was definitely a difficult challenge today,” Djokovic said. “Fabio played well towards the end of the second set, but it was all my fault. I had a break for 4-2 up and I played a terrible game. After that, it was very even. It could have gone either way.”
Fognini saved a match point with a service winner in the 10th game of the second set and broke Djokovic in the 11th.
He duly served out the set, and had Djokovic under pressure in the opening game of the third, when the Serbian fended off one break point, then battled through four game points and an irksome time violation before finally holding serve.
From there, Fognini began to fade. Djokovic broke him to lead 3-1 and broke him again to secure the win.
Djokovic said his difficulties had not dented the confidence gained from capturing his fourth Australian Open crown in January, and a fourth ATP Dubai title last week.
“I’m not concerned,” Djokovic said. “I know I have been in this situation before, where I had minor setbacks in a match, especially in the opening matches where I’m trying to get used to the court, the conditions, so forth. In the end, I have done what I needed to do. The ‘W’ is there, so I feel good about myself.”
Murray, playing his first match since falling to Djokovic in the Australian Open final, quickly found himself down 5-1 to Donskoy — ranked 83rd in the world.
Although the slow start raised unwelcome memories of his first-match exits at Indian Wells in each of the past two years, Murray won four straight games to level the set.
However, he was unable to convert any of six break chances in the 11th game and Donskoy broke him for a third time in the 12th game to pocket the set.
However, Murray had found his range and made short work of the second and third sets.
The US Open champion next faces Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun, a 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/5) winner over 26th-seeded Slovakian Martin Klizan.
Seventh-seeded Argentine Juan Martin del Potro had little trouble in a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Russian veteran Nikolay Davydenko, but eighth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France had to fight past determined US wild-card James Blake 7-6 (8/6), 6-4.
Tsonga squandered four set points in the 12th game of the opening set, then had to fight off three set points for Blake in the tiebreaker.
Blake saved two match points against his serve in the ninth game of the second set, before Tsonga closed it out with a love game.
It was a bit of a slog for the top women as well.
Second-seeded Russian Maria Sharapova had to battle back from an early break in each set to earn a 7-5, 6-3 third-round victory over Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro.
“I thought it was a tough one,” Sharapova said. “She’s a quality player, capable of playing some really good tennis. She’s beaten top players in Grand Slams before and has a really solid game with a lot of variety.”
Third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland dropped a first-set tiebreaker, but rallied for a 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 6-4 victory over Romanian Sorana Cirstea.
Fifth-seeded Czech Petra Kvitova, the 2011 Wimbledon champion, had slightly less trouble emerging with a 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) victory over Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko, while sixth-seeded Italian Sara Errani sailed through, defeating Sweden’s Johanna Larsson 6-3, 6-1.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was