By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, January 6, 2016
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic swept Fernando Verdasco, 6-2, 6-2, to reach the Doha quarterfinals.
Photo credit: Qatar Tennis Federation
Unerring flurries from Novak Djokovic left Fernando Verdasco unnerved eight games into their Doha clash.
Festering frustation boiled over as Verdasco punched the ball in disgust.
The world No. 1 beat the Spaniard to the ball, picked him apart from the baseline and reduced Verdasco to beating up on himself in a clinical 6-2, 6-2 victory that spanned just 69 minutes.
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The man who concluded a dominant 2015 reaching a record 15 straight finals, has dropped just four games in each of his first two matches of 2016. Djokovic shows no signs of slowing down.
"Both of the matches went very well. You never know how you're going to start the season; you're hoping for the best," Djokovic said. "Obviously he's a very powerful player. If he has time he can be very dangeorus so I tried to take that time away from him. It was a very solid performance."
The 28-year-old Serbian continues to torment left-handers. Djokovic has won 19 consecutive matches versus left-handers; his last loss to a lefty came against Rafael Nadal in the 2014 French Open final.
The win sends Djokovic into a Qatar Open quarterfinal match with Leonardo Mayer. The No. 8 seeded Argentine defeated Pablo Andujar, 6-2, 6-4.
Djokovic's wife, Jelena, arrived in his box just in time to see her husband hammer an ace to hold at love for 2-1. Verdasco, whose last hard-court win over Djokovic came at the 2005 US Open, tried to play closer to the lines to test the top seed.
Accuracy did not match his ambition. A sloppy game saw Verdasco send a wild backhand wide as Djokovic broke for 3-1.
Djokovic won eight of his next 10 service points before breaking again to take the opening set in 31 minutes when the Spaniard slapped a forehand off the tape. Verdasco committed more than four times as many errors (17 to 4) than Djokovic in the set.
Complications arose in the third game of the second set. Djokovic committed four consecutive errors, spinning a double fault into net to hand his opponent his first break point. Verdasco could not convert, sliding a backhand long to end a lengthy rally. Djokovic worked through a five-and-a-half minute game holding for 2-1.
Slashing an ace to stretch his lead to 3-2, Djokovic scored his third break for a 4-2 advantage.
Verdasco earned his second break point in the seventh game, but Djokovic answered the challenge winning a 20-shot rally to quell the threat, navigating an eight-and-a-half minute hold for 5-2. The top seed closed in style whipping a forehand pass crosscourt.
Djokovic, who did not drop serve, scored his sixth straight hard-court win over the world No. 49 to raise his record to 8-4 versus Verdasco.