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Novak Djokovic didn’t have everything going his way during his second-round win over youngster Luka van Asse at the Srpska Open on Wednesday.
World No. 1 Lorenzo Musetti’s shock loss at the Monte Carlo Masters in his first match at the ATP 250 tournament in Bosnia and Herzegovina dominated the talk of his injury: «The elbow is not in good form, but it’s good enough to be ready for the first match.»
And again he played in the armband and for large parts of the opener, 18-year-old Van Asch gave his more established rival a run for his money, and another upset looked on the cards.
However, experience would ultimately tell as the 22-time Grand Slam winner ran out a 6-7(4-7), 6-3, 6-2 winner in Banja Luka in two hours and 38 minutes.
«It wasn’t easy,» Djokovic said after the match. “This is probably the slowest level of court I’ve ever played on, to be honest. I could not enter through the court. I couldn’t put any balls on him.»
The Frenchman first gave the world’s best player a scare in the ninth game when he broke and then went out to serve for the set, but the Serbian immediately hit back to take it to a break.
Van Assche was not to be denied as he finished off the scoring.
But Djokovic is a master of turning things around as he breaks back in the third game, breaks back early in the second set and breaks back in game 9 to take it to the decider.
The teenager, however, stormed out in the third set just to make a quick turnaround for the top seed in the opening game.
Djokovic took a 4-1 lead again to close out the match and break for the third time to clinch the win, which was as good as it got for the youngster.
«He was on every ball for about an hour and a half until I started playing some balls,» added Djokovic. “I’m happy with the way I finished the game. Of course, I can always play better, but a win is a win.
In the quarter-finals, the world No. 1 will face fellow Serb Dusan Lajovic or eighth-seeded Frenchman Gregoire Barre.
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