DUBAI // That was about as straightforward a start to the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships as Novak Djokovic could have hoped for.
On court for just under 66 minutes, the world No 1 and four-time Dubai champion dismantled Spain’s Tommy Robredo 6-1, 6-2 to dismiss any doubts that three weeks away from competitive action could have had an adverse effect.
Monday night’s win in front of a near capacity Centre Court crowd means Djokovic is now one win away from his 700th ATP victory, and it will be the job of Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri to delay the 28-year-old Serbian from reaching that landmark.
“Every milestone is very special, of course,” Djokovic said. “I wish that I make the 700th win in this tournament, obviously, but it’s not going to affect too much my preparation for the next match.
“It’s not going to change too much the way I approach the next match or this tournament, but of course I’ll be very pleased if it happens here.”
Photo gallery: Novak Djokovic, Feliciano Lopez and Mikhail Youzhny serve it up in Dubai
Given the early signs offered by Djokovic in his first round, Jaziri will have a mountain to climb if he is to achieve the near-impossible and hand Djokovic his first defeat of a season that already includes the Qatar Open title and a sixth Australian Open.
From the off against Robredo, the pressure was relentless as Djokovic broke with his first break point of the match, and after a love service hold, he was 3-0 ahead in the blink of an eye.
Djokovic’s ability to turn defensive and neutral rallies into winning positions is unrivalled, and it was this quality that made the 11-time grand slam champion far too strong for Robredo.
The 33-year-old Spaniard was given no margin for error, and when an opponent of Djokovic’s ilk maintains that level of intensity on every shot, it naturally leads to errors.
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Robredo was left with no choice but to take high-risk shots in search of points, and it proved an unsustainable tactic to deploy, particularly for an endurance-style player like Robredo.
A marathon Game 6 went the way of Djokovic and after a comfortable service hold, the first set was wrapped up in 31 minutes.
The pressure on Robredo did not diminish in the second set, and the world No 41 showed incredible nerve in a 13-minute service game to resist two break points and open with a service hold. In response, Djokovic then held to love in just under two minutes.
Robredo’s resistance was broken in the next game and after successive breaks of serve, Djokovic closed the match out with another love service game. He may not have been at his sparkling best, although he did not need to be, but it was a display of brutal efficiency from Djokovic.
“Tommy is a very experienced player. He’s won against top players many times on different surfaces, different occasions. He’s a great fighter,” Djokovic said. “I knew he would not get overwhelmed by the occasion and playing in a big stadium.
“He can be very tricky if you give him time, but I tried to take away that time from him.
“Playing the first match in three weeks in different conditions, I didn’t know how I was going to start, whether or not I was going to execute the gameplan. But everything went well, very few things went wrong.
“I was putting constant pressure on his serve, I returned very well, served solid and was aggressive from back of the court. I cannot be happier with this performance.”
It was indeed an impressive performance from Djokovic, but the worrying thing for the rest of his rivals in Dubai this week, he will only keep getting better.
jturner@thenational.ae
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