Djokovic beats Bautista-Agut to reach Dubai Open Quarter Final

Written by: on 27th February 2013
Men Dubai Tennis Championships
Djokovic beats Bautista-Agut to reach Dubai Open Quarter Final

epa03603291 Novak Djokovic of Serbia in action against Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain during the third round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis ATP Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 27 February 2013. EPA/ALI HAIDER  |

World number one, top seed and three times Dubai Open champ Novak Djokovic put on a fine display for the gathered crowds in Dubai as he strode into the serious end of the tournament with an impressive 6-1, 7-5(4) win over Spaniard Roberto Bautista-Agut.

The Serb’s rival and top challenger for the title here, Roger Federer, had earlier easily dispatched another Spanish player – Marcel Granoller who at 35 is ranked twenty places above Djokovic’s opponent. Perhaps a show of force to both the players left in the tournament was in Djokovic’s mind as he set about Bautista-Agut from the off, coming back from 15-40 down to deuce in the very first game of the match, then an error from Bautista-Agut set up a break point and Djokovic wrong-footed him to start the match in the best possible fashion.

There were to be two further breaks in the opening set, whereas Bautista-Agut won only two points on Djokovic’s serve – that’s just 14%, and you can’t even get close to winning anything with those sorts of stats. What those stats do allow, however, is for Djokovic to post some equally remarkable figures of his own. Of course 14 from 100 leaves Djokovic with 86% – but in fact it gets even better than that, Djokovic won 92% of points on his first serve in that one-sided opening set.

Djokovic steamrollered Bautista-Agut, going 3-0 up in 10 minutes and winning the whole set in less than half an hour. It was the fifth game before Roberto Bautista-Agut registered anything permanent on the score-board, but at 4-1 down there was little hope of a first set comeback against Djokovic. The Serb looked focussed and serious throughout the match, none of his trademark Djoking about – he’s here to get his title back, in Federer’s backyard – Federer has a house here.

Bautista-Agut salvaged some reputation in the second set, taking Djokovic all the way to a tiebreak, but much like Federer’s match against Granoller, once the opening exchanges proved that the higher calibre player was fit and hitting well, there was only really going to be one result. A few mistakes from Bautista-Agut put himself under pressure, and Djokovic went for the djugular again, breaking his first service game. However, you can’t get within the top 40 of players in the world without having something about you, and Bautista showed his mettle by fighting back in the very next game, a double fault from Djokovic bringing up deuce but Bautista-Agut couldn’t capitalise. In fact he was made to wait until after he’d defended a 2-5 deficit that her got the break back to return the set to on-serve at 4-5.

Djokovic then had the chance to serve for the match but was harried and hampered by the Spaniard into making mistakes. 0-40 purely by the servers hand whilst serving for the match will be of concern to Djokovic – himself the master of coming back from set and break situations. A brilliant forehand winner into the corner away to Djokovic’s right sealed the break-back for Bautista-Agut.

The second set went to a tiebreak, but not before Djokovic had wasted four match points on Bautista-Agut’s serve. Uncharacteristic errors at crucial moments will give poeple like del Ptro and Federer pause for encouraging thought.

The second set went the way of a tiebreaker, taking in an epic 10+ minute game at 4-5 with Bautista-Agut serving. Djokovic showed his class in the dividing moments which separate winners from the also-rans. Bautista-Agut will have gained a few fans here today, but ultimately didn’t have enough in the tank to avoid a straight sets defeat. He can certainly take heart from his spirited last stand at the end of the second set. He had at one point a mini-break in the tiebreak and must’ve thought for a moment that a miraculous recovery was on the cards.

Djokovic defeats Bautista-Agut 6-1, 7-6(4)

 

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