1st Round Match in ATP Dubai: Djokovic vs Istomin

Second day of the tournament i watched another 1st round match between World number 2 Novak Djokovic and Uzbek Denis Istomin (54).

Djokovic is one of the best and fit player in Atp tour. He is always one of my favourite player, not only his great skills on court but also his attitudes to his opponents. On the other hand, Denis Istomin has a very interesting story. When he was 15, he had a big accident and doctors told him that it was even suspectful for him to get the racquet on his hand again. He stayed away from tennis for 2.5 years. After that he started to play again and with a great success he is in the first 100 in the world.

It is always hard to play against Djokovic. Denis Istomin tried and stayed in the set. But when Djoker get a chance to break, he follows. He did it here and firset set 6-3.

In the second set Istomin literally gave his service game as a present to Djokovic by making a double error in his serve. Djokovic passes his service games easily and made the score 3-1. After that it was not easy for Istomin to be in the game but he kept fighting, took 2 more of his service games. But it was not enough to push his rival. Djokovic had a easy match for his side, took the  match 6-3, 6-3.

When the big 4 faces with the players who are not in top 20, matches are usually goes so static, mostly one sided. This match was one of them. Istomin can be dangereous for many players but it is not easy for him to play against such a high level champion.

As the tournament moves forward, matches will be much better. Today Del Potro retired because of the injury in his left hand. He lost the first set in tie-break to Devverman who apperad here with a wild card and after that he announced to withdrawn from the tournamnet. It was sad that Del Potro is dealing with injuries for years and he is not making that progress which he could do much better- in his career.

Djokovic, Federer, Berdych and Tsonga moves on for the second round.

*Photo taken from Australian Open FB page.