Serbian world no.1 Novak Djokovic cruised through to the fourth round at the Sony Open Tennis tournament on Sunday with a comfortable 6-2, 6-4 victory over no.254 Somdev Devvarman in 68 minutes.
The two-time reigning champion won 93 percent of his first service points and converted three of his seven break points to win the first-time meeting with the Indian.
Novak secured an early break and then raced through his service game to consolidate it. He broke Devvarman to love in the seventh game and sealed the set 6-2 in 33 minutes.
The second set went with serve until the fifth game when Djokovic used the first of his three opportunities. The top seed served it out 6-4 to improve his 2013 record to 19-1.
“Conditions were not so great. It was very difficult to get into the rhythm because you couldn’t really serve at your 100% and you had to go more for precision and you had to put twice as much effort in the step adjustments because of the windy conditions,” Novak said. “All in all, I’m just happy to get through the rough day.”
Match statistics: aces (4-4), double faults (2-1), winners (17-8), unforced errors (26-21), total points won (59-43).
The 25-year-old Belgrade native has won 14 matches in a row in Miami and has a 26-4 career mark.
For a place in the quarterfinals, Novak will take on Tommy Haas on Tuesday about 21.30 local time (Wednesday 02.30 CET). The 15th seed advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Aleksandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine.
Djokovic has a 4-2 H2H record against the German and has won their past two meetings.
“Tommy is very talented, he’s probably one of the most experienced active players in the world. He can play equally well on any surface. He played a terrific match today in windy conditions. You can always expect Tommy to fight and try his best. It’s going to be a tough match, and hopefully I can be fit to play my best.”
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