Novak Djokovic was relieved to have made a smooth return to hard court tennis after easing past Radu Albot in the opening round of the US Open.
The Serbian, who continues to chase a record 25th grand slam title, had not played since winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics, an event staged on the clay of Roland Garros, three weeks ago.
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That followed the grass court swing, meaning Djokovic was a little undercooked coming into New York. But he had few alarms in seeing off qualifier Albot, winning 6-2 6-2 6-4.
“It’s always challenging to start, particularly when you haven’t played on this surface for five, six months, and coming off an Olympic gold and playing on clay,” Djokovic said.
“I haven’t had any official matches before the US Open. So I’m expecting to be probably challenged a little bit more in the opening rounds. Hopefully, I can play better each day.”
No trouble for Novak in Round 1! pic.twitter.com/i3w490zVfs
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 27, 2024
Djokovic has also had to content with a knee injury that required an operation in early June and he again wore a bandage on the affected joint.
It didn’t seem to hamper his movement as he made smooth progress past Albot and into a second-round clash with countryman Laslo Djere, who beat German Jan-Lennard Struff in five sets.
The pair met at the third round stage last year with Djere holding a two-set lead before Djokovic came back to win.
“It’s a guaranteed third round for one of the Serbian guys,” Djokovic added. “Hopefully it’s going to be me. But Djere is a guy that really likes playing on a big stage. I think he also loves the conditions here. It’s a bit quicker. Ball stays low. He has a very flat backhand particularly and very good serve, great return. He’s physically as fit as anybody.
“I remember very well our match. It was a very tough match. I’m going to try to analyze that and hopefully do some things even better than I did last year.”
