By Mark Lamport-Stokes
INDIAN WELLS, California, March 10 (Reuters) – World
number one Novak Djokovic eased into the third round of the
Indian Wells ATP tournament with a commanding 6-3 6-2 victory
over Kazakhstan qualifier Andrey Golubev on Saturday.
The top-seeded Serb, champion here in 2008 and last year,
broke his opponent’s serve twice in each set to triumph in one
hour 20 minutes.
“It was a good start,” Djokovic said in a courtside
interview after sealing the win with a powerful first serve that
forced a wild backhand error by his 145th-ranked opponent.
“We didn’t play a beautiful match and there were a lot of
unforced errors but look, it’s the opening match of the
tournament for me and I am getting used to the conditions and
the court.
“Hopefully the next match will be better,” added the Serb,
who won his fifth grand slam crown at the Australian Open in
January.
Djokovic, who beat Spaniard Rafa Nadal in last year’s final,
will next face South African Kevin Anderson, who benefited from
a walkover when Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber withdrew due to
an unspecified illness.
British world number four Andy Murray, runner-up at Indian
Wells in 2009, was scheduled to play his second-round match
against Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez later on Saturday.
Continued…
