Novak Djokovic got his 2016 season off to a winning start cruising past Dustin Brown with 6-2 6-2 in just 51 minutes to advance to the second round of the Qatar Exxon Mobil Open in Doha, a ATP 250 Tournament. The World Number 1 player broke serve five times his first head-to-head match against Brown. Djokovic will face either Fernando Verdasco or Malek Jaziri.
Djokovic returned to Doha, where he lost in the quarter finals against Ivo Karlovic. He was watched on by Boris Becker, who won the firts edition of this tournament in 1993
In the first set Djokovic broke serve to 30 in the second and in the fourth games. Brown, who is known for his spectacular shots and beat Rafa Nadal last year at Wimbledon, hit a lob from behind the back in the fifth game but Djokovic raced to 5-0 in just 16 minutes. Brown held his first service game before breaking serve for the first time in the match for 2-5 after Djokovic made two unforced errors. Brown did not convert two game points for 3-5. Brown made two double faults to drop his serve for the third time in the opening set in just 25 minutes.
Djokovic broke serve in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead. Brown saved a break point in the sixth game but made his fourth double fault of the match to end the match in 51 minutes.
“It’s been six weeks since I played the last match, so I was very excited to go back to the court, compete and see how I go. Obviously you never know how you are going to start from the blocks. You can do your best to prepare yourself well, which I did. I used to off-season very well to get my body in the right shape. I think it was a very good start. I want to win the tournament and not train for the Australian Open”, said Djokovic.