With some clean up to do, Djokovic eases into US Open second round

pLike slipping into a comfortable bath, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/novak-djokovic/d643/overview'Novak Djokovic/a eased into his title defence at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a Monday night, albeit with a few wrinkles to iron out in the coming rounds./p
pReturning to hard courts for the first time since Indian Wells in March and playing his first tournament since winning Olympic gold on clay in Paris three weeks ago, Djokovic didnrsquo;t bring his cleanest game to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/arthur-ashe/a063/overview'Arthur Ashe/a Stadium. The four-time champion threw in 10 double faults, put just 47 per cent of first serves into play and made 40 unforced errors. /p
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pBut despite the stains on the stats sheet, Djokovic was always in full control of his first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Albot, closing out the 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 win in two hours and seven minutes, sending fans on their way just before midnight./p
pJoking before the match that he was seeking revenge on Albot, who has wins over his brothers Marko and Djordje, Djokovic captured a record 78th win by a male inside Ashe./p
p"I wanted to kick start the tournament in the right way and I think I did," Djokovic said on ESPN. "Some ups and downs which I think is normal, getting the rust off your shoulders coming off a different surface and the Olympic Games. p/p
"I haven't played on hard courts for six months, so I'm still finding that groove, finding the tempo on the court."/p

pMoving into a tie with a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/roger-federer/f324/overview'Roger Federer/a for most wins at the Open (89), second only to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jimmy-connors/c044/overview'Jimmy Connors/a (98), Djokovic was untroubled in his return to hard courts in his first appearance since claiming the Olympic singles gold medal in Paris, where he completed the career Golden Slam./p
pChasing a 25supth/sup major to break a tie with Australiarsquo;s Margaret Court, Djokovic next faces fellow Serbian a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/laslo-djere/db63/overview'Laslo Djere/a, who defeated German a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jan-lennard-struff/sl28/overview'Jan-Lennard Struff/a in five sets./p
pThe No. 2 in the PIF ATP Rankings is also hunting his 100supth/sup career title this fortnight./p
pDjokovic, who won the first of his four US Opens in 2011, improved to 30-7 on the season. Over his Grand Slam career, the 37-year-old is 62-1 versus players outside the Top 100 and at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a he is 41-0 against players outside the Top 50. Albot slipped to 107-147 according to the Infosys ATP Match Wins Index./p
blockquote class="twitter-tweet"p lang="en" dir="ltr"The defending champ cruises to R2 ???? a href="https://twitter.com/usopen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@usopen/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/USOpen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#USOpen/a | a href="https://twitter.com/DjokerNole?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@DjokerNole/a a href="https://t.co/b7dGrz52za"pic.twitter.com/b7dGrz52za/a/pmdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1828280418895880386?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"August 27, 2024/a/blockquote script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script
pWorld No. 138 Albot was making his 10supth/sup a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a main draw appearance after qualifying for the third time./p
pAlbot had momentum for a fleeting moment in the second set when he broke back at 2-all and led 40/0 on serve, but Djokovic responded with a flurry of penetrating returns to win five consecutive points to reclaim the lead in emphatic fashion./p
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