London: Novak Djokovic defeated Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-2 on Monday to earn his 12th straight victory in opening matches at the elite eight-man event ATP Finals.
Djokovic won 65 per cent of his second-serve return points (13/20) to move to 1-0 in Group Tokyo 1970 after one hour and 18 minutes. Djokovic’s only loss in an opening match at this event came on his tournament debut in Shanghai in 2007 (l. to Ferrer).
‘The beginning of the match wasn’t that great for me. He broke my serve in the third game and I managed to break [back]. It was a close encounter until I broke his serve at 4-3 and managed to close out the first set,’ said Djokovic in an on-court interview.
‘In the second set, I started swinging through the ball a little more [with] a bit less hesitation from both corners. I was very pleased with the way I played, especially in the second set.’
Djokovic showed great consistency in his first tournament appearance since his quarter-final loss to Lorenzo Sonego at last month’s Erste Bank Open in Vienna. With his sixth win in as many ATP Head2Head matches against Schwartzman, the 33-year-old equalled Andrey Rublev’s Tour-leading total of 40 wins this season.
Schwartzman struggled to find a way through his opponent in his debut at the Nitto ATP Finals. The eighth seed, who owns a 25-13 record this year, is the first Argentine singles player to compete at the season finale since Juan Martin del Potro in 2013.