Sports

Djokovic survives rough start to advance at U.S. Open

Novak Djokovic, the No. 1 player in the world, looked more like a qualifier early in his second-round match at the U.S. Open Friday against unranked Benjamin Becker. Though he escaped a first-set tiebreak before cruising to a 7-6 (2), 6-2, 6-2 win to advance to the third round, Djokovic knows he has to play better if he wants to make the finals for the fourth straight year.

“I need to start the way I started in the first match, but my game is getting there,” he said. “I feel that it was a big test for me today. It was a challenge, and I needed to overcome it. I’m glad I’m through in three [sets].”

Djokovic and Becker both held serve in the first eight games of the match, but Djokovic blew three break points, which would have given him a 5-3 lead. Instead, he lost his serve and was trailing 5-4 with Becker serving for the first set. That’s when the champion took over. He won that set and had no trouble winning the tiebreak, 7-2, to win the set in 52 minutes.

“I had my chances though first set earlier to break but didn’t capitalize. After I played a good tiebreak, everything kind of settled,” said Djokovic, who will play Joao Sousa in the third round. “I started to serve better. I started to step into the court, which is important.”

Djokovic made 26 unforced errors, compared to just nine in his first-round win. But he turned his game up a notch after that first set, as the final two were not nearly as competitive. Djokovic won them in a combined 59 minutes, not expending nearly as much energy as he did during the first set.

“He should have won the first set. I was fortunate enough to win the first set,” Djokovic said. “It was a struggle. It was different conditions from [my] first match, and, you know, I knew that he’s a dangerous player.”

The knock on Djokovic early in his career was his inability to play through pain and in the heat, as he often would retire from matches. But that’s no longer a problem, as he has won five of the past 11 Grand Slams.

“One o’clock in the afternoon it was quite hot on the court,” he said. “I found it kind of tough. I had to work twice as hard than usual, because at the start I wasn’t finding my rhythm.

“It was very tough. It was a lot of unforced errors, very windy conditions. You couldn’t really read and kind of predict where the ball is going to go, so you have to be very alert.”

* Andy Murray was thrown from corner to corner, with 81st-ranked Leonardo Mayer’s heavy ground strokes keeping the defending champion on the ropes, but the Brit ultimately was good enough to advance to the third round for the seventh straight year, knocking out the 26-year-old Argentine, 7-5, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, at Louis Armstrong Stadium.

The third-seeded Murray next will face 29-year-old Florian Mayer.

“I was a bit frustrated at points in the match because, you know, I was doing quite a lot of the running for a lot of it,” said Murray. “I think he played some really good tennis. It made for an entertaining match. … I finished the match well today. I played well when I needed to. That’s a good sign.”

Although Murray captured his first Grand Slam title at last year’s Open, the 26-year-old has struggled more at the year’s final major than at any other. He had advanced past the fourth round in three of his previous eight appearances.

Even after Murray won the first two sets, the hard-hitting Mayer kept his confidence, rolling through the third set as Murray struggled with his serve.

Ever-growing emotion from Murray peaked in the fourth set as he broke Mayer’s serve to take a 3-1 lead, before eventually winning the match on a cross-court forehand.

“[Mayer] made it very tough,” Murray. “He served big too, bigger than I thought. It took me some time to get used to his game.”

* American men experienced another lackluster day, as three of the four singles players in action were eliminated in the second round.

Denis Kudla lost to No. 5 Tomas Berdych in straight sets, and Donald Youngalso was ousted in three sets, by Florian Mayer. Rajeev Ram won the first two sets against Marcel Granollers, but was unable to close out the match, losing in five sets and slamming his racket on the court after match point.

The only American man who advanced was Tim Smyczek, who outlasted Alex Bogomolov Jr. in a 3-hour, 59-minute five-setter. This is the farthest the 25-year old Smyczek has advanced in a Grand Slam tournament.

Though 15 American men entered the tournament, just three remain: Smyczek, John Isner and Jack Sock.

* Fifteen-time Grand Slam doubles champions Mike and Bob Bryan advanced in their chase to become the first team to collect all four Grand Slams in a calendar year since 1951, with the Americans advancing past Eric Butorac and Frederik Nielsen, 6-3, 6-2, in the second round. The top-seeded twins already have won four straight majors.

* CBS starts its U.S. Open coverage today, but it is blacked out for Time Warner Cable customers because of the ongoing dispute between the network and the cable company.