Novak Djokovic won his first Grand Slam match of the season, dropping just four games in a 6-4 6-1 6-0 win over world No 99 Yoshihito Nishioka at the French Open. The world No 1 is the defending champion in Paris and got his campaign to pick up a second-successive title off to a dominant start, needing just an hour and 59 minutes to book his spot in round two.
Djokovic was returning to Court Philippe-Chatrier 51 weeks after being crowned the French Open champion, in what was the first of the French Open’s brand new night sessions. It was also his first Grand Slam match of the year after he was deported from the country on the eve of the Australian Open at the start of the season. The world No 1 came in with a 2-0 head-to-head against Nishioka and went on to extend his winning record against the world No 99.
But it wasn’t the start the defending champion would have wanted, as he was forced to save three break points in a lengthy opening game to hold serve. Nishioka managed to stay with the top seed until he was serving at 2-3, when Djokovic took the opportunity to pounce and secure the first break of the match. He had another break point with the Japanese player serving at 2-5 down which was also a set point, but Nishioka held on and forced the Serb to close out a 6-3 set himself after 52 minutes.
All the momentum was now with the two-time champion in Paris, as he broke in the first game of the second set. After saving a break point on his own serve, Djokovic continued his run of games and broke twice more to serve for the set at 5-0, but a rare second-set error from the top seed got Nishioka on the board for the first time in the set. But things quickly went back in the 35-year-old’s favour as he broke to take the second 6-1 in 36 minutes.
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