World No. 3 Novak Djokovic made a fast start to his Australian Open campaign on Rod Laver Arena on Monday evening, needing just 91 minutes to dispatch Spain’s Marcel Granollers 6-1, 6-3, 6-1.
The Serbian is looking to win his first Grand Slam title since lifting the trophy at Melbourne Park three years ago (d. Tsonga) and stated his intent with a dominant display against the No. 42-ranked Granollers. In their first meeting, Djokovic struck 34 winners to only half the amount of unforced errors and broke serve seven times from 12 opportunities.
“Definitely I'm satisfied with the performance today. Just happy with the way I played overall,” said Djokovic, who closed 2010 by leading Serbia to victory in the Davis Cup final. “I was building up on the confidence that I had in the past couple weeks of 2010, [when I] played really well, even in London, then the Davis Cup final was just remarkable.
“Right here I took the ball early from the start, wanted to be aggressive, give him no choice to come back to the match. Definitely this performance gives me more confidence and gives me enough reason to think that I can beat anyone.”
World No. 6 Tomas Berdych also made an impressive start, cruising past Italian Marco Crugnola 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 in one hour and 39 minutes. The Czech, who reached the fourth round in Melbourne from 2007-2009, committed less than half the unforced errors of his opponent and broke serve seven times from 11 opportunities.
“Starting like that, it's always a pretty good start, not to make it quite complicated, just focus since the first points until the last one,” said Berdych.
The 25-year-old Berdych opened his 2011 ATP World Tour season two weeks ago with a semi-final showing (l. to Wawrinka) at the Aircel Chennai Open. The Czech player made his breakthrough at the Grand Slams last year, advancing to the semi-finals at Roland Garros (l. to Soderling) and reaching his first major final at Wimbledon, where he defeated Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic back-to-back before finishing runner-up to Rafael Nadal.
Berdych next will face Philipp Kohlschreiber who came back from the brink to edge 2010 ATP World Tour Newcomer of the Year Tobias Kamke 1-6, 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4, 6-4 in an all-German clash.
Swiss No. 19 seed Stanislas Wawrinka was a comfortable straight-sets winner, dismissing Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and 27 minutes. The 25-year-old Wawrinka came into Melbourne on the back of winning his third ATP World Tour title in Chennai (d. Malisse) and improved to a 6-0 mark for the season.
Spaniard Nicolas Almagro held off Stephane Robert to earn his place in the second round. The No. 14 seed dropped the third set but recovered to notch a 6-4, 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-5 victory over his French opponent. The 25-year-old Murcia native, who reached the semi-finals (l. to Nalbandian) in Auckland last week, enjoyed his best performance in Melbourne last year when he reached the fourth round (l. to Tsonga in five sets).
Elsewhere, former World No. 7 Richard Gasquet hit 39 winners in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win over Frank Dancevic, while Serbian No. 29 seed Viktor Troicki – runner-up in Sydney last week – needed four sets to dispatch Dmitry Tursunov 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 6-0.
