TENNIS – Novak Djokovic beat Portugal’s Joao Sousa 6-1 6-2 6-4 in a rain-interrupted match to advance to the second round of the Roland Garros 2014. The Serbian player, who lost in the 2012 final against Rafael Nadal and is still looking to win his first French Open title, faced the only trouble in the third set when he broken while he was serving for the match in the third set. Diego Sampaolo
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Djokovic started his match with a double break to take a comfortable 4-0 lead but he dropped serve in the fifth game.
Djokovic was leading 4-1 when the match was interrupted by rain. The Serb faced three break points but he saved them before clinching the first set with 6-1. The match was restarted one hour later but was stopped briefly during the second set because of a short shower.
Djokovic broke serve in the fifth game of the second set to take the 3-2 edge before pulling away to 5-2 before the match was interrupted by rain for 15 minutes. During the break Djokovic lived up to his reputation as crowd pleaser when he entertained the crowd by chatting with a ball boy and inviting him holding an umbrella over his head to join him on the bench
Sousa held his serve on his first service game before Djokovic reeled off four consecutive games. Djokovic dropped serve in the sixth game allowing Sousa to close the gap to 4-2. Djokovic broke straight back in the following game for 5.2. Sousa rallied from 0-30 to break serve to claw his way back to 3-5 when Djokovic was serving out for the match. Djokovic won for the 25th time in 28 matches this year.
“I played quite solid for most of the match. The end of the match was not so nice from my side. I dropped serve twice”, said Djokovic
The Serb wrapped up the match with an ace to set up a second round match against Jeremy Chardy, who beat Roger Federer in the second round of the Internazionali d’Italia in Rome.
Djokovic is looking to become the eighth player in history to win a Career Grand Slam
“Chardy had a big win over Federer in Rome, so I am sure that he is very motivated to play his best. But I have been looking forward to this tournament for a long time. I am in good form”, said Djokovic
