Novak cruises at high altitude - 溫網 Tennis

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Novak cruises at high altitude
Author: Z. Kecman | Foto: Reuters | 25.02.2009 - 07:00

Novak Djokovic has proven that besides being a top-class tennis player, he is
gifted in other areas of life, such as flying a commercial plane. Serbia’s
finest tennis player, who began his appearance at the Serbia’s finest tennis
player, who began his appearance at the ATP event in Dubai with a win, had a
unique opportunity to try himself out as a pilot of a flight simulator of a
A380 airplane.

Djokovic, currently taking part in the $2.23m event, seems to have got the
hang of his new role.

- “I always have an opportunity to have fun in Dubai. Last season I went
skiing down an artificial indoor slope, while this year I got to try myself
out as an airplane pilot. It was really fun and I enjoyed it a lot,” Novak
admitted.

Elsewhere on court, Djokovic was hardly having fun against Italy’s Flavio
Cipolla, currently ranked 125th in the world. Regardless of an emphatic
scoreline that might suggest the Serb came to an easy win, the ATP No. 3 had
to work hard in order to win games, even on his own serve.

In the opening set, Novak broke his opponent in the fourth game to make it
3-1, but the Italian responded instantly. After the moment of weakness, Novak
stepped up a gear and came to another break for 4-2. Djokovic then won the
remaining two games, despite missing a couple of set points at 5-2. Cipolla
could also lament the closing stages of the opening set, as he missed two
breakpoints to return to the match.

The first-round encounter was a reminder Novak Djokovic is still below his
best and searching for form. He slipped up in the second set and dropped a
serve game, but Cipolla failed to capitalize on the advantage, as he was even
less convincing at his own serve. Novak re-broke and came to consecutive
leads of 2-0 and 3-1, after which the Serb once again broke Cipolla. The
Italian then managed to bounce back and reduce the gap to 4-2, but in the
very next game Novak increased the lead to an unreachable 5-2. After 84
minutes of play, Djokovic clinched the match, winning 6-3 6-2, and now awaits
another match against Jan Hernych, whom he beat last week at the Marseille
Open 7-5 6-4.

Djokovic is the sole remaining Serbian representative at the Dubai Open.
After Janko Tipsarevic’s early exit on Monday, Viktor Troicki was knocked
out on Wednesday, after losing 6-3 6-4 to Italy’s Simone Bolelli, ranked
36th in the ATP rankings.

Bolelli earned an emphatic win and a place in the next round. The two breaks
– towards the end of the opening set and at the beginning of the second –
were enough for a win of the Italian.

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