World no.1 Novak Djokovic advanced in straight sets on Thursday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, the season’s third and final clay-court ATP Masters 1000 tournament.
The Serbian top seed broke four times, twice in each set, to defeat Canadian Denis Shapovalov 6-1, 6-3 in 66 minutes at Campo Centrale, reaching the third round.
Nole was scheduled to play on Wednesday but a complete washout pushed his opening match in Rome to Thursday.
Match statistics: aces (2-1), double faults (0-3), winners (13-16), unforced errors (11-24), total points won (63-38).
Novak’s next match is scheduled for later today against Philipp Kohlschreiber, in what will be their 12th ATP H2H meeting (9-2) and third of the season.
The German eliminated no.16 seed Marco Cecchinato (ITA) 6-3, 6-3.
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