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By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, January 6, 2015

 
Daniela Hantuchova

Novak Djokovic meets the media in Doha.

Photo Credit: Qatar Tennis Federation Facebook

A fever forced Novak Djokovic to withdraw from last week's Abu Dhabi exhibition final. The world No. 1 brought illness and fatigue to court today in his Doha opener.

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In the latter stages of Djokovic's 6-2, 6-1 thrashing of good friend Dusan Lajovic, his Davis Cup teammate looked a little sick and tired of seeing the assortment of winners streaming past.

"It feels good better than I thought it would feel a few days ago," said Djokovic of the illness. "I wasn't sure if I was going to play in this tournament so I'm really glad I came to Doha for the first time and managed to get on the court and play tennis."

Playing attacking tennis for much of the match, Djokovic more than tripled Lajovic's winner output (26 to 8) and converted five of six break points.

Starting the second full season of his partnership with coach Boris Becker, Djokovic is intent on winning more free points on his serve and finishing points in the frontcourt. The Wimbledon champion put that plan into positive effect, winning 14 of 19 trips to net.

Serving for the match today, Djokovic closed with aggression. Down 15-30, he smacked a second serve ace down the middle, slammed an overhead to earn match point and closed on a Lajovic error. The top seed will face Sergiy Stakhovsky in the second round.

Since losing to Kei Nishikori in the U.S. Open semifinals, Djokovic has won 18 of his last 19 matches. Amping up his first serve enables Djokovic to play shorter points.

“Today I’m able, in some big matches, to get a lot of free points on the first serve which definitely, you know, allows me to feel more confident on the court, because my game is based on the baseline, so I have many opportunities to close out the point and come to the net and make some points shorter," Djokovic said. “Those are certain, I would say, specifics that we are working in the game right now."


Djokovic is intent on expanding his game, but knows he must play to his strengths on pivotal points — and continue his Grand Slam success — to retain the top spot. The 27-year-old Serbian has reached at least the semifinals in 17 of his last 18 major appearances.

“I still want to continue on doing what I have done so far, because I have enough reason to believe that this is something that is going to, I think, allow me to have a big opportunity to stay at the top of the men's game,” Djokovic said. "If you want to fight for World No. 1, you need to kind of be able to play most of the big events, especially Grand Slams, and you need to be able to win at least one or two of them if you want to be No. 1.

"I know that… I need to take it step by step.”

 

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