{"id":131769,"date":"2020-02-24T17:20:30","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T16:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/?p=131769"},"modified":"2020-02-25T16:47:34","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T15:47:34","slug":"novak-makes-winning-return-in-dubai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/news\/tennis\/novak-makes-winning-return-in-dubai\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak makes winning return in Dubai"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>World no.1 Novak Djokovic made winning return to <a href=\"https:\/\/dubaidutyfreetennischampionships.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships<\/a> on Monday, as he comfortably beat Tunisian wild card Malek Jaziri.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The four-time former champion recorded a 6-1, 6-2 victory in one hour, breaking Jaziri twice in the first and second sets, and having denied his rival a single break point opportunity.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With the win, Novak improved his perfect W\/L record in 2020 to 14-0.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cIt&#8217;s a great way to start out the tournament,\u201d<\/strong> said Djokovic. <strong>\u201cI really enjoy playing here. I enjoy night sessions. I think I&#8217;ve done everything as well as I imagined it to be for the first match. Of course, there are things that always can be improved, things that can be better. But I have to be satisfied with the performance.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Match statistics: aces (7-2), double faults (3-3), winners (22-5), unforced errors (17-12), total points won (58-31).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Novak will next meet German Philipp Kohlschreiber (11-2 H2H record), who defeated Mohamed Safwat of Egypt in three sets (4-6, 6-4, 6-0).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead to the second round challenge, the Serbian star said: <strong>\u201cI lost to him in straight sets in Indian Wells last year. I am aware of what he&#8217;s capable of. He likes playing top players on a big stage. He has lots of experience, he&#8217;s very fit. I will not underestimate him. I will prepare myself. I&#8217;m feeling good on the court. Tonight was another testament to the way I feel. Confidence. Striking the ball well. Hopefully that can continue in the next match.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Novak teamed up with Marin Cilic in the doubles competition. They fell to top seeds Rajeev Ram (USA) and Joe Salisbury (GBR) 2-6, 2-6 in Round 1.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo: Michael Babic<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Making his first appearance in Dubai since 2016, the four-time former champion beat Malek Jaziri in straights sets, 6-1, 6-2 to reach the second round. He will next meet German Philipp Kohlschreiber (11-2 H2H record).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":131767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101012179,101012197,101011131,101011626],"class_list":["post-131769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-atp-500-en","tag-dubai-en","tag-emirates-en","tag-round-1-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131769"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131860,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131769\/revisions\/131860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}