World number one Novak Djokovic did not let friendship prevent him from carrying on where he left off last month when he made a successful defence of his Australian Open title at the Dubai Open here on Tuesday.
Djokovic’s attempt to win back the Dubai Open title began with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Viktor Troicki, the fellow Davis Cup player with whom he grew up and shared tennis courts many times in the city of Belgrade.
The top-seeded Serbian moved so swiftly and turned defence into attack so suddenly that it was hard to believe four weeks had passed since he last played singles on the ATP tour.
The only blemish in Djokovic’s performance was letting slip an early break of serve in the second set, when he delivered a moderate second serve and missed with a backhand drive to allow Troicki back to 4-4.
But he intensified his focus and broke again immediately, with some resilient containing and counter-attacking, and then closed out the match without fuss.
