Novak Djokovic with a new mindset played a lot like the Novak Djokovic of old on Tuesday during his 2016 debut at the Shanghai Rolex Masters. The top seed rolled through Italian Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-3 to improve to 39-1 during his past 40 matches in Asia. The World No. 1 also converted four of five break points and benefited from seven Fognini double faults to pad his Shanghai record to 25-3.
The Serbian hadn't played a match since exactly a month ago when he fell to Stan Wawrinka in the US Open final. Djokovic didn't contend for his seventh China Open title in Beijing last week because of an elbow injury.
But the three-time Shanghai champion showed little rust. He broke Fognini on his first attempt in the match's second game and led by a set after 37 minutes. The Belgrade native dominated on the return side during the second set, winning almost 60 per cent of his return points.
“I was just pleased to be back on the court, considering I skipped Beijing that I planned to play. I had great memories and success in the past in this tournament, on this court,” Djokovic said. “I was just trying to focus on my game and things that I worked on the last couple of weeks... I believe things will progress as days go by.”
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Before this week's ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament, Djokovic had said he wanted to find more joy on the court and worry less about winning titles. The approach seemed to work on Tuesday. Djokovic, who has reached the semi-finals or better in all six of his Shanghai showings, will next face Canadian Vasek Pospisil or Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
“As I said before, it's very simple. I try to look at things from a different perspective, from a more human perspective rather than from a perspective of a professional tennis player,” Djokovic said. “When I get on the court, of course I want to give my best and eventually try to win the match, but that comes as a consequence of how I feel and how I approach, how I prepare, just a general mindset and approach.”
The 25-year-old Dimitrov triumphed against 14th seed Richard Gasquet for the first time in six attempts. Dimitrov broke the Frenchman four times and claimed 72 per cent of his second-serve points to win 6-4, 6-4 and continue his second-half resurgence.
Dimitrov, a runner-up in Beijing (l. to Murray), ascended two spots in the latest Emirates ATP Rankings to No. 18. Five months ago, on 16 May, he was ranked No. 36. He leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Pospisil 3-0.
Fifteenth seed Roberto Bautista Agut advanced to the second round after Aussie Bernard Tomic retired 41 minutes into their match, down 6-3, 3-0. The Spaniard will try to match his best showing in Shanghai and reach the third round when he meets #NextGen American Taylor Fritz on Wednesday.
Frenchman Gilles Simon saved all five break points to glide past Pablo Carreno Busta 6-0, 6-3. Simon, who reached the Shanghai final in 2014 (l. to Federer), won 73 per cent of his service points against the Spaniard. The 32-year-old Nice native will play Chinese Di Wu in the second round.