World No.1 thumps Croatian opponent in straight sets
Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates winning against Croatia's Marin Cilic during their singles ATP World Tour tennis finals match
London: Novak Djokovic started his bid for a third successive ATP Tour Finals title with a sublime 6-1, 6-1 victory over Marin Cilic at London’s O2 Arena on Monday.Djokovic took just 57 minutes to thrash US Open champion Cilic as the world number one extended his winning run at indoor events to 28 matches, a streak that includes 11 consecutive victories at the Tour Finals.
The Serb, who has already triumphed in London at Wimbledon earlier this year, is bidding to become the first man to win the Tour Finals three times in a row since Ivan Lendl from 1985 to 1987 and he looks in the mood to do just that on the evidence of his latest masterclass.“It’s been a great, great match. I haven’t played here for 12 months, it’s great to be back. It was a great performance,” Djokovic said.
“Marin as a US Open winner has a lot of confidence, but I managed to neutralise his serve and get a lot of ball back in play and that was part of the tactic.”Earlier, Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka opened his Group A campaign in scintillating style with a 6-1, 6-1 demolition of Tomas Berdych.
Wawrinka, the reigning Australian Open champion, had been in poor form heading into the event, but the world number four was back in the groove against the Czech as he took only 58 minutes to wrap up the win.The 29-year-old hit 16 winners to only four from Berdych.
( Source : AFP )
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