That Novak Djokovic was in good form going into the US Open was evident from his wins in the Wimbledon, followed by the tournament victory at the Rogers Cup and a final at the Cincinnati Open. Last night he gave another sample showing of why he continues to remain a favourite to win his third Grand Slam this year, as he crushed Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq 6-0 6-0 6-2.
Djokovic, who has lost only two matches this year, one to Roger Federer and another in that Cincinnati final to Andy Murray, demolished his opponent; getting to within four games of winning the match without losing a game. The last time that had happened in a Grand Slam match was way back in 1993 when Sergei Bruegera crushed Thierry Champion to love.
Djokovic finally lost a game after having reeled off 14 in a row, as Berlocq, ranked 74th, broke his serve. Interestingly, both the games that Djokovic lost were off his own serve in the final set.
But barring the two games that he did win, the Argentine looked powerless against a man who seems to have found his mojo this year after being an outsider to the Rafael Nadal-Roger Federer rivalry for a couple of seasons now.
The Slovak said, “We are professionals on the court. We need to do our job, obviously to win, regardless of who is across the net. I know Carlos off the court. He is a nice guy. Today on the court I had an answer for every shot. I played great.”
Djokovic would have had his eye on the five-time champion Roger Federer, who also won his second round match against Dudi Sela in straight sets, 6-3 6-2 6-2.
Federer needed only 77 minutes to clinch the match and march into the third round of the competition.
The competition will now stiffen for Federer, who will take on 27th seed Marin Cilic in the third round. Cilic had no difficulty in beating Australian rising star Bernard Tomic 6-1 6-0 6-2, in another of the one-sided encounters. Cilici had earlier taken out another rising American star, Ryan Harrison in the first round of the US Open.
The toughest match of the day had come in the form of the seventh seed Gael Monfils taking on Juan Carlos Ferrero, which went to five sets. Ferrero won the first set tie-break, before losing the next two. This was followed by wins in the last two sets, 6-4, 6-4 to clinch the match.