Wimbledon Champion Novak Djokovic Wins Opener in Rogers Cup

Toronto: Reigning Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic has gotten off to a solid start in the North American summer hard-court season, defeating Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Mirza Basic 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in the first round of the Rogers Cup here.

Also on Tuesday, a pair of top-10 players — Bulgarian No. 5 seed Grigor Dimitrov and Croatian No. 6 seed Marin Cilic — moved through to the third round with three-set victories over Spain’s Fernando Verdasco and Croatia’s Borna Coric, respectively, reports Efe.

The ninth-seeded Djokovic had initially been due to face Hyeon Chung, in what would have been a rematch of a 2018 Australian Open contest won by the promising young South Korean.

But when Chung withdrew from this ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament with a back injury, lucky loser Basic took his place in the draw.

Djokovic dominated the first set, but he had to win the second set in a tiebreaker after twice squandering service-break leads due to sloppy play on serve. (IANS)