Tennis: Bautista Agut beats Safiullin in Barcelona
he Spaniard, who is chasing his 12th ATP Tour crown this week, will meet seventh seed Karen Khachanov in the second round.
Serbian star Novak Djokovic has started his 2023 season with a win in Adelaide. In his very first singles match of the year Djokovic defeated French player Lestienne and proceeded to the second round of Adelaide International 1.
The World Number 5 Novak defeated Lestienne in his debut head-to-head singles match by 6-3, 6-2. “For the first match, I can’t complain. I played very well. I thought the first six games were very competitive and I have never faced him before.”
“He is a counterpuncher; he doesn’t make too many mistakes. He has a tricky serve and hits his spots. But once I made that break at 3-2 in the first set, I thought I stepped it up and played really good tennis for the rest of the match,” said Novak after a convincing win.
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The Frenchmen Lestienne who is ranked 65th lost the match after he was outplayed in 44% of the points in the 75 minutes the set continued. Djokovic is all set to take on Quentin Halys to complete his title defence.
“To see the packed house for my first match was definitely a very pleasant surprise, and lots of support, lots of love. That obviously motivated me and allowed me to express myself in the best possible way on the court with my game.”
I thought I had a very solid, competitive start. I think for six games, we were kind of close. He also had a break point. I managed to play solid in important moments and got rewarded with the break, and after that I didn’t look back. I played really well in the second set,” the Serbian was quoted as saying by ATPTour.com.
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