Staff Reporter.
Novak Djokovic got his Italian Open campaign off to a positive start, progressing to the third round in straight sets with a 6-3 6-1 win over combustible Frenchman Corentin Moutet.
Despite top seed Djokovic being broken in his first two service games, the Serbian responded to Moutet’s strong start to take the first set 6-4 from a position of 3-1 down.
The second set then saw Djokovic firmly on top as Moutet started to regularly rant to himself and towards his corner, receiving a warning from umpire Carlos Bernardes for kicking the net, and throwing his racket several times too – all either side of his phone alarm bizarrely going off.
In the end, Moutet could not get back into a positive frame of mind to compete, going down meekly in the second set 6-1.
Djokovic will next face Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo in the third round.
“I haven’t practiced with a lefty in a while, so it took me a little bit of time to adjust to the different rotation on the balls,” Djokovic said afterwards. “The first four games were quite bad for me. But then I played well.
“Corentin is a very talented player. He has great hands and very unpredictable. You don’t know what what comes up next. So I had to stay focused, which I did. So it’s a good opening match.”
Elsewhere, former champion Alexander Zverev, the world No 3, defeated Aleksandar Vukic 6-0 6-4, while veteran Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov swept past Yoshihito Nishioka 7-5 6-4 on Court 12.
Fifth seed Casper Ruud, though, suffered a shock defeat as Miomir Kecmanovic came from behind to win 0-6 6-4 6-4 – the Serbian having recovered after leaving the court for a medical time-out late on in the first set.
Number 11 seed Taylor Fritz ended the hopes of home wildcard Fabio Fognini as the American came through 6-3 6-4.
Ben Shelton maintained his impressive clay-court form as the 21-year-old American came from behind to beat Pavel Kotov 4-6 6-3 6-4 and reach the third round in Rome for the first time.