Djokovic moves to third round with win over Karatsev

TIL Desk Sports/ Novak Djokovic’s bid to retain his World No 1 status got a boost on Tuesday after he registered a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 victory over Russian Aslan Karatsev in the second round of the Italian Open, here.

The top seed must reach the semi-finals to prevent Daniil Medvedev from taking his spot at the top of the ATP Rankings on Monday, and the Serbian’s all-round performance against Karatsev represented an impressive start to that mission.

Djokovic’s return game was at its relentless best as he broke the World No 35 serve four times on his way to a comfortable win on centre court.

“When you see him, physically, (he is) a very strong guy. You never know with him. If he’s feeling the ball, he can be very dangerous because he stays so close to the line, puts pressure on his opponents,” Djokovic said about Karatsev, after the match.”He was missing a lot of balls today though. He gave me a couple of breaks there in the first and second sets, but I’ll take this win for sure. It’s a straight-sets win against a quality opponent and I’m looking forward to the next challenge,” he added.