New York: After initial hiccups World No. 1 Novak Djokovic finished strongly to defeat Benjamin Becker 7-6(2), 6-2, 6-2 in the US Open second round here on Friday.
The Serb was denied on early break point chances in the first set before Becker seized his opportunity to break for a 5-4 lead. The German was unable to close out the opener, though, and Djokovic was in charge in the subsequent tie-break. Djokovic dropped only 10 points on serve in the following two sets as he raced to victory in one hour and 51 minutes.
Becker has always carried the reputation of being giant-killer and the early part of his game did remind of how he defeated Andre Agassi in the final match of Agassi's career in 2006.
As the match went into the second set, Djokovic started getting into the groove and broke Becker early when the German misfire a forehand and allowed the number one seed to dominate the rest of the match. Djokovic’s strategy of coming inside the baseline worked really well as it pushed Becker onto a defensive stance and that made him quite ruffled for the rest of the set. Djokovic raced away with the lead of 5-2 and then comfortably held serve to take the set 6-2.
Both German and Serb were engaged in a palpable battle in the third set before Djokovic come up with a forehand return which allowed him to break and cruise through the match. Making the most of the double fault from the German, Djokovic make his way to the third round following a service winner.
Hass advances to the third round of US Open
Meanwhile in another men’s singles match of the day, Germany’s Tommy Haas registered a comfortable win in the second round of the US Open as he overpowered unseeded Yen Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei by 6-3, 6-4, 7-6.
Lu committed series of errors to hand over the early lead to Hass in the first set. Haas wrapped up the opening set in just 33 minutes. It was again the erratic play from the Chinese that gave the German his break in the second set and he fought off eight break points in the sixth game, which featured 26 points. Haas made the most of the chances that came his way his way and with five breaks of serve in nine games, he served the set at 5-4 and sealed the set thereafter.
The final set of the clash went till the tie-breaker and both the players found it hard to keep up their pace. But Haas served for the match and smashed an ace at a pace off 116 mph to clinch this contest.
Youzhny and Granollers get through to the second round of US Open
In the men’s singles tie between 21th seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny and Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov, Youzhny ended the run of a determined Dolgopolov when he defeated him by 7-5, 6-1, 6-3, in a second-round match on Friday.
In yet another match of men’s singles, 29 year old American Rajeev Ram was left stunned by the Marcel Granollers of Spain in round two on Friday, as he lost the match after winning the first couple of sets. It was a dramatic turnaround on the part of Spaniard which got him this 3-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 win