MONTE CARLO: Novak Djokovic briefly ran into a spot of bother as he fought his way into the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 victory against Russian qualifier Ivan Gakhov on Tuesday.
The world number one, who had not played since early March when he reached the final in Dubai after being forced to skip Indian Wells and Miami because of his Covid unvaccinated status, struggled to find his range on the Monte Carlo clay before prevailing on a sunlit centre court.
Gakhov went for his shots and claimed the first service break to lead 4-3, only for the Serbian to break right back and take the opening set by winning the tiebreak 7-5.
Djokovic was then business-like in the second set, leaving no chance of a comeback for his opponent, who suddenly felt the court was too big for him.
The double French Open champion, who suffered an opening-round exit here last year, will next face Lorenzo Musetti or the 16th seed’s Italian compatriot Luca Nardi for a place in the quarter-finals.
“It was probably, if you can call it this way, an ugly tennis win for me today,” Djokovic said. “I haven’t played my best, particularly in the first set. And I kind of expected that that was going to happen in a way with swirly conditions, a lot of wind today, changing directions.
“It’s different practising and then playing an official match on clay, where I guess no two bounces are the same. It’s always quite unpredictable what’s going to happen. But all in all, I’m just pleased with the way I held my nerves I think in the important moments and I managed to clinch the two-set win.”
Later on Tuesday, second seed Stefanos Tstitsipas barely broke a sweat to reach the third round against Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi, who abandoned with a wrist injury while trailing 4-1 in the first set.
The two-time defending champion next meets either Chilean Nicolas Jarry, ranked 58, or Australian Alexei Popyrin, 94th, for a place in the quarter-finals.
Earlier Andrey Rublev and Alexander Zverev both survived dropping a set, but last year’s runner-up Alejandro Davidovich Fokina fell at the first hurdle.
Fifth-seeded Rublev, recipient of a first-round bye, rallied to beat Spaniard Jaume Munar 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in their second-round tie.
“The feeling was, ‘No way, I might be out in the first round of Monaco’,” said Rublev, 25, who will face fellow Russian Karen Khachanov, Dan Evans or qualifier Ilya Ivashka in the third round.
German Zverev made a hesitant start to his clay-court season before seeing off Kazakh Alexander Bublik 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the first round.
Zverev was back on clay for the first time since he retired in the French Open semi-finals last year against Rafael Nadal with an ankle injury.
The 13th-seeded German took just under two hours to move past Bublik.
“It felt awful at times to be honest,” Zverev said. “It usually takes me five or 10 minutes to get used to a clay court, but this year was a bit different. I needed to get the injury out of my head. I needed to get used to sliding again.”
Zverev, a two-time Monte Carlo semi-finalist, will next play Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut for a place in the third round.
Spaniard Davidovich Fokina fell 6-2, 6-2 to ninth seed Khachanov. Khachanov took 75 minutes to brush past Davidovich Fokina, who lost the final last year to Tsitsipas.
Italian Lorenzo Sonego saved four match points to beat French qualifier Ugo Humbert 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 and plays third seed Daniil Medvedev in the second round.
