adminNovak Djokovic had to dig deep to fend off Frenchman Gilles Simon in the second round of Cincinnati’s Western & Southern Open. Serbia’s world No 1 and recently married Wimbledon champion lost to Simon’s compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Toronto last week, and was in trouble after dropping the second set to Simon.
He recovered to post a 6-3 4-6 6-4 win and later said on the ATP website: ‘I know I’m not playing at the level yet where I want to be and it’s obvious, but I keep on pushing myself.’
Djokovic, afforded a first-round bye, added: ‘Every day is a new challenge to try to look out for a better game tomorrow and after tomorrow, and hopefully it’s going to come.’
Djokovic has a particular target this week, which is to land the title and become the first singles player to complete a career sweep of all nine World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments, the tier below grand slam level.
Earlier in the day, Tsonga had slid to a surprise first-round loss against Mikhail Youzhny, being brushed aside 6-1 6-4 by the Russian who will next face Andreas Seppi.
In the second round, third-seeded Swiss Stan Wawrinka beat Benjamin Becker 6-3 7-6 (7/5).
In the concurrent women’s tournament, French Open runner-up and new world number two Simona Halep returned from a four-week break to beat Belgian Kirsten Flipkens in her opening match.
Former top-ranked Danish player Caroline Wozniacki beat China’s Zhang Shuai 6-2 6-3 to join Halep in the third round. — Dailymirror
derick.khumalo