Match report

Novak Djokovic © Tennistalk.com
ATP Masters Series Monte Carlo
2nd round
4/22/08 1 2 Tot
rs  Novak Djokovic 6 6 2
hr  Ivan Ljubicic 3 3 0
Ivan Ljubicic © Tennistalk.com

  • Djokovic kicks off clay campaign with solid win over Ljubicic

    4/23/08 6:11 AM | Jonathan Morgan
    After giving up his serve in the first game, Djokovic was able to right the ship and beat Ljubicic 6-3 6-3 in the Monte Carlo 2nd round.

    Novak Djokovic has a lot to live up to this clay season. It is not his favorite surface, he is much more comfortable on the hard courts, but he can surely play on the red stuff. The expectations this season for him are quite high.

    Djokovic was able to exploit the Croat's subpar clay movement and horrible court positioning. Ljubicic was far behind the baseline in the rallies and seemed content to simply defend while Djokovic attacked. Advantage Serbia. Djokovic tried being aggresive the entire time, but was a bit rusty and made some shockingly poor volleys. Overall, though, he played a solid match to get through and played the big points very well. Ljubicic's far behind court positioning made absolutely no sense. Sure, he hit some nice backhands, but everytime Djokovic went to the forehand, Ljubicic was done for. Novak will play Andy Murray in the 3rd round.

    As a post script, the two players and off-court friends exchaged shirts at the end of the match, football style.

  • Thumbs up

    Well done to Novak to get his clay feet under him and a tough match with Murray in the next round should truly test where he is at in terms of clay contention

  • Thumbs down

    Horrible decision making from Ljubicic in terms of court positioning. He simply did not have the gameplan to win here.

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