Making his first appearance at the BNP Paribas Open since 2019, Novak Djokovic kicked off his fortnight with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Aleksandar Vukic on Saturday afternoon. Djokovic, who was also playing for the first time since the Australian Open, punched his ticket to the third round after two hours and 11 minutes.
“Five years is quite a long time for a professional tennis player, but at the same time playing here the last time in 2019 felt like yesterday,” the top-ranked Serb commented. “I connected with the crowd and everyone I haven’t seen in five years very quickly. A lot of people come to practice sessions, not just mine. It’s amazing to see that much passion and respect and appreciation for tennis and tennis players. It’s awesome to be in Tennis Paradise.”
Some Djokovic rust combined with an impressive performance by Vukic resulted in a surprisingly competitive contest.
“He played amazing and deserved great credit and applause,” the 24-time Grand Slam champion praised. “The crowd really appreciated his tennis and the quality was really high. He played some ripping forehands and crushing serves. It was difficult to go through him.
“He was going for it and it was going in. I kind of managed to crack the code in the third set and once I broke his serve I felt I stepped it up a bit and finished off the match in style.”
Djokovic is joined in the last 32 by Taylor Fritz, Holger Rune, Grigor Dimitrov, Lorenzo Musetti, Ugo Humbert, Sebastian Korda, and Sebastian Baez. Rune got a walkover from Milos Raonic, while Musetti came back from a break down in the third set to beat Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 2-6, 7-5.
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