Rampant Novak Djokovic starts ATP Tour Finals bid in style

Eleanor Crooks 07:55 11/11/2014
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  • Indoor king: Novak Djokovic on his way to a straight sets win over Marin Cilic in London.

    Two-time defending champion Novak Djokovic joined Stan Wawrinka in posting a crushing win to open his ATP World Tour Finals campaign in London last night.

    Earlier in the day Wawrinka had put a poor run of form behind him with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Tomas Berdych that lasted just 58 minutes.

    It was the most one-sided result since the tournament moved to Britain in 2009 – but it took only a few hours for it to be equalled as Djokovic won by the same score­line against reigning US Open champion Marin Cilic, and in two minutes fewer.

    The Croatian, whose New York triumph was one of the shock results of the last decade, had lost all of his previous 10 matches against Djokovic, including a five-set defeat in this year’s Wimbledon quarter-finals, and once again Cilic had no way of stopping his rival.

    The world number one is the king indoors, protecting a 27-match winning streak dating back more than two years.

    And from the moment he hit his stride to break for a 2-1 lead in the opening set, a 28th looked inevitable.

    Djokovic was simply far too good and too solid off the ground, clinching a second straight break with two sumptuous forehand passes.

    Cilic saved one set point with an ace but not a second, and Djokovic made it eight games in a row by breaking serve again at the start of the second set. The one high point for Cilic came with a break to love in the third game, but he was well and truly outclassed on his debut in the tournament.

    Djokovic admitted he was delighted by his display and said he had decided to go after Cilic’s renowned big serve from the start of the clash.

    “It’s been a great, great match. I haven’t played here for 12 months, it’s great to be back. It was a great performance,” said the 27-year-old Serb.

    “Marin, as a US Open winner has a lot of confidence. But I managed to neutralise his serve and get a lot of the balls back in play and that was part of the tactic.”

    Asked how he managed to return serve so consistently well, Djokovic replied: “Most of the time, it’s obviously the practise that makes it perfect and a lot of hours spent on court.

    “Obviously, it’s one of the elements in the game I can rely on and it’s very useful when you’re playing a big server.”

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