Serbian Novak Djokovic defeated Austrian Dominic Thiem 6-1, 6-4 on Wednesday in his debut at the Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament in Melbourne, where the former world number one reappeared after a six-month absence due to injury chronic in the right elbow.
Novak Djokovic faced his first match in the last 181 days with a compression sleeve covering his right arm. Only that reminded him of his ailment, as the Belgrade player, winner of twelve Grand Slam titles, was competitive.
“I had been waiting for this moment for six months,” he said after the crash. “I feel great,” he added.
Satisfied with the level shown against the fifth best player on the men’s circuit, ‘Nole’ assured that this duel allows him to know where he is and verify that the work carried out with his team throughout the preseason “works”.
“Everything has gone quite well,” celebrated the Serbian. «Especially the service, which was one of the great unknowns due to the elbow injury. That was a hit I couldn’t do in July and for that reason I decided to stop at Wimbledon, “he explained.
Winner of the Australian Open in five of the last seven editions – and also in 2008 – Novak Djokovic was “very happy” but refused to say that he is “one hundred percent”.
“I’ll say that when a tournament starts,” he stressed.
The former world number one resigned at the beginning of the year from the Abu Dhabi exhibition tournament and the Doha event, already part of the ATP circuit, to continue his tuning before the first Grand Slam of the season.
Djokovic, who plans to play one more game at the Kooyong Classic this week, according to the organization of the contest, said goodbye to the day this Wednesday with his participation in the Tie Break Tens, in Melbourne Park.
He played a 10-point individual match against Australian Lleyton Hewitt, corresponding to the quarterfinal round. The Serbian lost 10-6.
Those who won in the Kooyong Classic were the Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis and the Australian Matt Ebden.
In the women’s draw, there was the victory of the Swiss Belinda Bencic against the Chinese Wang Xinyu.
Novak Djokovic faced his first match in the last 181 days with a compression sleeve covering his right arm. Only that reminded him of his ailment, as the Belgrade player, winner of twelve Grand Slam titles, was competitive.
“I had been waiting for this moment for six months,” he said after the crash. “I feel great,” he added.
Satisfied with the level shown against the fifth best player on the men’s circuit, ‘Nole’ assured that this duel allows him to know where he is and verify that the work carried out with his team throughout the preseason “works”.
“Everything has gone quite well,” celebrated the Serbian. «Especially the service, which was one of the great unknowns due to the elbow injury. That was a hit I couldn’t do in July and for that reason I decided to stop at Wimbledon, “he explained.
Winner of the Australian Open in five of the last seven editions – and also in 2008 – Novak Djokovic was “very happy” but refused to say that he is “one hundred percent”.
“I’ll say that when a tournament starts,” he stressed.
The former world number one resigned at the beginning of the year from the Abu Dhabi exhibition tournament and the Doha event, already part of the ATP circuit, to continue his tuning before the first Grand Slam of the season.
Djokovic, who plans to play one more game at the Kooyong Classic this week, according to the organization of the contest, said goodbye to the day this Wednesday with his participation in the Tie Break Tens, in Melbourne Park.
He played a 10-point individual match against Australian Lleyton Hewitt, corresponding to the quarterfinal round. The Serbian lost 10-6.
Those who won in the Kooyong Classic were the Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis and the Australian Matt Ebden.
In the women’s draw, there was the victory of the Swiss Belinda Bencic against the Chinese Wang Xinyu.