Top seed and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia beat Ivan Gakhov of Russia 7-6 6-2 in a second-round match of the Rolex Monte Carlo Masters on Tuesday. The match lasted for a little more than one and a half hours.
The 35-year-old Serb thus remained in contentions for his third title in Monte Carlo. The 26-year-old Gakhov, ranked 196th in the world, did not give up without a fight, however. We will now take a look at how the match progressed:
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Gakhov’s forehand caused Novak Djokovic a lot of trouble in the first set:
Gakhov hit his forehand really well in the first set. He hit his crosscourt forehand typically with a sharp angle and also hit a number of inside-out and inside-in forehands for winners. In fact, his decision to attack from the baseline and his ability to hit through Djokovic seemed to have stunned the Serb to an extent. The Russian’s backhand was shaky during the initial stages of the set, but he started hitting it with more power as the set progressed.
Djokovic saved a couple of break points in his second service game, but was broken in the subsequent one. However, the Serb broke back immediately in the next game to level the score at 4-4. Gakhov hit a couple of returns wide in the next game, as the set eventually went into a tie-break.
Gakhov committed a few silly unforced errors off his forehand to help Novak Djokovic scrape through the tie-break 7-5. The set went for an hour and 10 minutes and there was absolutely nothing between the two in it.
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Djokovic had it easy in the second set:
Djokovic found things a lot easier in the second set, as the occasion finally got to Gakhov’s nerves. The Russian started committing errors more frequently, while Djokovic remained his usual reliable self.
The Serb broke Gakhov twice in the second set and never lost his serve to finish the match off easily. Both players struggled on their second serve in the match, but Djokovic put more pressure on the Russian’s first serve as the match progressed.
In the end, Gakhov could win only 65% of the points on his first serve in the match _ a number that was spoilt by his performance in the set. In comparison, Djokovic won a far more respectable 78% of the points on his first serve. However, the match did no harm to Gakhov’s reputation as a player.
Main Photo Credit: Mitchell Gunn-USA TODAY Sports
