Djokovic tames Tomic
World No.1 Novak Djokovic handed Bernard Tomic a straight-sets dismissal at the Rome Masters on Wednesday.
After enjoying a first-round bye, Djokovic opened his title defence with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Tomic on Tuesday night.
Tomic will be seeded at a grand slam for the first time at the French Open starting on Sunday week, but was no match for the top-seeded Serb.
Coming off a quarterfinal loss to fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic on the blue clay at last week’s Madrid Open, Djokovic went ahead with two early breaks and faced minimal resistance from the 19-year-old Tomic.
“It was a good match for me to start with,” said Djokovic.
“[Tomic] has a lot of talent and he changes things up well, so you don’t know what to expect – that’s what makes him dangerous.”
With the French Open less than two weeks away, Djokovic is looking to rediscover the form from his 43-match winning streak a year ago.
Winning at Roland Garros is a top priority for him after taking the three other majors last year.
While never really pushed to play his best, Djokovic showed off his expert shot-making at times.
During the game when he broke to go up 4-2 in the second, Djokovic was on a full run and slid into the splits to lift a perfectly placed lob that Tomic couldn’t handle, hitting into the net.
Djokovic had half as many unforced errors as Tomic – 15 to 30 – and led 20-15 in winners.
