Novak Djokovic was pleased with his strong play Tuesday, as he dominated the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters to begin his clay-court season. Despite his impressive 6-1, 6-2 victory against Roman Safiullin, the Serbian was quick to temper his expectations as he pursued his first title of the year.
“This is a terrific start. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and set our expectations too high,” Djokovic remarked in his post-match press conference. “It was only one match, but I was quite happy with how I felt. This is just the beginning of the tournament. It’s one match. I’m hoping to work tomorrow to keep that rhythm and attention, and certainly attempt to perform as well as I did in the second match.
Djokovic, a 98-time tour-level champion, is 9-3 this season, with his best finish being a semi-final appearance at the Australian Open. The Belgrade native was eliminated early from the BNP Paribas Open last month, losing in the third round to Luca Nardi.
After failing to go beyond the quarter-finals in his last seven outings in the Principality, two-time event champion Djokovic will be hoping to return to form this week and reverse that record. The 24-time major champion had a strong start on Tuesday, committing only nine unforced errors and advancing after 70 minutes.
“I really like the way I felt today on the court, the way I was striking the ball,” Djokovic stated at the time. “I believe the two to three weeks of training I received are paying off. I had a good training block with [Nenad] Zimonjic and the team.
