Spain’s Rafael Nadal partnered by Fernando Verdasco of Spain successfully returns the ball during the men’s doubles match against Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russian Federation and Albert Ramos of Spain at the Qatar Open in Doha, Qatar, Monday, Jan. 4, 2016.
Advertisement
The way Nadal would turn to ball boys, asking for balls to serve, gave an impression that they were missiles for use during pitched battled.
The world number five made a slow start in Doha, though, before his quality eventually shone through in a 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-1 victory.
Djokovic’s progress was more serene, though not without its scares, as he beat Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer, 6-3, 7-5.
World number one Novak Djokovic plays later Thursday.
Nadal’s match, however, will live longest in the memory.
“I wanted to take away the time from him”.
Mayer would go up a break in the second set and had a chance to force a deciding third set while serving at 5-4, but Djokovic broke Mayer, and after consolidating it with a hold, broke one more time to advance with a 6-3, 7-5 victory.
The Serb’s four-set defeat of Andy Murray in last season’s final marked the occasion of his fifth Australian Open triumph in the last eight years and his 89.29% win percentage in Melbourne is even superior to that of Roger Federer at Wimbledon. “A good match, good performance. We talked enough about 2015, and I talked enough about all the things that happened”. “I think I played a great match. So for me it’s so important to win these kind of matches”.
Top seed Djokovic lost just four games in a comprehensive defeat of Spain’s Fernando Verdasco. “The second set was very close and it could’ve gone his way”.
“Both of the matches went very well”, Djokovic said of rounds one and two.
The 28-year-old has won 19 consecutive matches versus left-handers; his last loss to a lefty came against Nadal in the 2014 French Open final.
He continued his remarkable run in Doha, overcoming injury and France’s Jeremy Chardy to qualify for the semi-finals. I didn’t obviously play my game. “It’s true that I missed the serve more times than what I wanted”.
Marchenko, from Donetsk, also revealed he is now based in Slovakia because of the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Advertisement
Third-seeded Tomas Berdych beat Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina 6-0, 6-4.
