Nole opened the day session at Arthur Ashe Stadium against no.31 seed Julien Benneteau.
The world no.2 beat Frenchman in straight sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in one hour and 37 minutes to reach the fourth round of the US Open in New York.
Novak made a break in the sixth game when Benneteau pushed a forehand into the net. At 5-3 Djokovic brought up two set points, converting the second with an ace down the middle.
Defending champion broke in the opening game of the second set, and with a set and a break ahead, he was almost halfway to winning the match after only 40 minutes on court. The Belgrade native converted one more chance in the seventh game, and sealed the set with back-to-back aces.
The Frenchman lost his serve twice in the third set, and Nole served out the set and match 6-2 with a crushing backhand down the line.
Match statistics: aces (13-4), double faults (3-2), winners (41-15), unforced errors (12-22).
“I haven’t played the first match of the day session for a long time,” Novak said. “I am not always the morning person, to be honest. But I wanted to start very sharp from the first point, and I’ve done that.”
“In the seven, eight days I had off after the Cincinnati final, my goal was to really try to recover, charge my batteries, work on some things in my game, and come out strong from the start. That’s what I’ve done. I feel great on the court. I’m really trying to keep that up.”
Five-time Grand Slam winner capitalised on five of his eight break point opportunities and won 82 per cent of his first serve points.
He now has a 5-1 lead against Benneteau on tour – with the Frenchman’s sole win coming at Indian Wells back in 2006.
The 25-year-old Serbian star will next face no.18 seed Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka who defeated Aleksandr Dolgopolov in straight sets.
Nole leads their H2H 10-2.
Photo: Getty Images
