{"id":28906,"date":"2012-05-08T19:45:34","date_gmt":"2012-05-08T18:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/?p=28906"},"modified":"2012-05-10T10:03:52","modified_gmt":"2012-05-10T09:03:52","slug":"nole-starts-madrid-title-defence-with-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/news\/tennis\/nole-starts-madrid-title-defence-with-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Nole starts title defence with win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nole is through to the third round of the Mutua Madrid Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The world no.1 overcame second-round test against Daniel Gimeno-Traver, winning in three sets 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, to progress on the new blue clay at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Djokovic converted 3 of his 12 break points and won 88 per cent of points on his first serve to eliminate the 137th-ranked Spanish qualifier in 1 hour and 46 minutes.<\/p>\n

Novak stormed through the opening set breaking his opponent’s serve twice, in the fourth and eighth games, for 6-2 in 33 minutes.<\/p>\n

The defending champion lost his momentum in the second set, while the Spaniard raised the level of his game. The 26-year-old made two breaks\u00a0to level at one set apiece.<\/p>\n

Games went on serve until the the sixth game of the deciding third set, when Novak made a crucial break. The Serbian top seed\u00a0had no problems in closing out the match with a comfortable hold.<\/p>\n

“Taking into consideration that this was my first official match on the blue clay and that my opponent today already had three matches behind him, maybe that was a little disadvantage on my side,”<\/strong> said Djokovic. “To try to find a good balance here is very difficult, so whoever anticipates well here will play well.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nole said it was “impossible to move” on the Manolo Santana show court.<\/p>\n

“I hit five balls throughout the whole match, everything else I was just trying to put the ball in the court so I just rely on my serve and getting some points eventually from his unforced errors,”<\/strong> he added.\u00a0“For me that’s not tennis.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Match statistics<\/span>: aces (7-7), double faults (4-0), winners (20-30), unforced errors (24-37), total points won (85-71).<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old Belgrade native improved to a 25-3 match record on the season (5-1 on clay), highlighted by winning his third Australian Open and Miami titles.<\/p>\n

Novak goes onto face world no.21 Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka who eliminated Austrian Jurgen Melzer.<\/p>\n

They have met eleven times, Nole leads 9-2.<\/p>\n