Djokovic advances in Madrid Open

MADRID: World No. 2 Novak Djokovic opened defense of his title with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Daniel Gimeno-traver in a late match yesterday in the Madrid Open tennis tournament

Earlier, the two leading women both reached the third round yesterday, with top seed Victoria Azarenka made to struggle by Czech Andrea Hlavackova before emerging 6-3, 7-6 (7/2) winner.

The Belarus player was serving for a quick straight-set result but was broken as her opponent pulled level at 5-5 in the second set.

The seed had to save a set point in the 12th game to bring on a tiebreaker, which finally saw her through with 32 winners in one and three-quarter hours.

“The surface is a bit slippery, but it’s the same for all of us,” she said of the blue clay court surface. “I don’t like to complain - it is what it is and it won’t change now.”

Second seed Maria Sharapova defeated another Czech in Klara Zakopalova 6-4, 6-3, firing 18 winners and breaking five times.

The Russian, whose match was started before 11:00 a.m. (0900 GMT) due to the demands of television, said that a few days of training on the controversial blue clay surface last week paid dividends.

“It’s not so much about the color. It does look good on television. But it plays a bit different. It’s about the amount of clay on the court and the way it bounces,” she said. On the men’s side, veteran Czech Radek Stepanek ended the run of Australian Bernard Tomic in the first round, with the Queensland youngster exiting 6-2, 7-5.

The 31st ranked Tomic, who reached a career-best first clay quarterfinal last weekend in Munich, lost in less than 90 minutes.

French ninth seed Gilles Simon fought back over Italy’s Fabio Fognini 6-7 (1/7), 6-3, 6-3 while Ukrainian 16th seed Alexandr Dolgopolov opened with a defeat of Spain’s Pablo Andujar 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.