The Serbian had to work on two tie-breaks to overcome the American Alex Michelsen.
The Serbian Novak Djokovic beat the American Alex Michelsen in two sets won in the tie-break (7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (11/9) for his entry into the running at the Masters 1000 in Shanghai on Saturday. Winner of the only Olympic tournament this year, a harvest certainly symbolic but meager for this ogre, Djokovic’s objective in Shanghai is to win a 100th tournament.
In a duel of generations against the young 20-year-old American Alex Michelsen, in full progress to 43rd place, Djokovic was in difficulty even if he came out in two sets. Trailing 3-0, the 37-year-old Serb woke up and gradually took the lead in the first set to win it in the tie-break. In the second set, he took Michelsen’s serve to lead 3-1, but was broken, the American coming back to 4-3. Here again, the Serb had to wait for the tie-break.
He gave the public the point of the match when, cornered after a drop shot, he passed a backhand pass while his back was to the net. He saved two set points before concluding on his third match point with a winning service. His unforced errors and lapses in concentration were ultimately without consequence, except for one match extended to 1h55. “Djoko” will face the Italian Flavio Cobolli or the Swiss Stan Wawrinka in the next round. In his part of the table, the Russian Andrey Rublev (seeded N.6) was eliminated by the Czech Jakub Mensik (65th) 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 6-3.
