Novak Djokovic, the number one player in the world, opened his campaign to finally capture the elusive French Open crown after three failed attempts at finals in Paris on the Philippe Chatrier. His first round opponent was the Chinese Taipei native, Yen-Hsun Lu. The Taiwanese started the match well and stayed with Djokovic for most of the first set but once Djokovic broke him in the ninth game, it was one-way traffic and the Serbian number one sailed away with the match and won it 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 in a match that lasted 90 minutes exactly. In the next round, he faces Steve Darcis from Belgium who beat Marsel Ilhan  from Turkey in three sets as well, 6-3, 6-4, 6-0. 

Djokovic Wins a Tight First Set

In the beginning of the first set, both players served well and we saw seven straight holds of serve. In game number eight, though, Lu played a sloppy service game and handed Djokovic the break advantage. However, the Serbian relinquished the lead in his next service game and the set was leveled once again. The Taiwanese was very close to consolidating his break and had a 40-0 lead in the ninth game of the set to make it 5-4 and force Djokovic to serve in order to stay in the set but he lost the next five points with three unforced errors from his side and two winners from Djokovic's and the Serbian regained his break of serve lead and was now in position to serve out for the set. He did so in style, holding to love with some great winners. 

Djokovic Sails to a Three-Set Win

Both players won their first service game at the beginning of the second set and from there onwards there was really only one player on the court, Djokovic, and the world number 95 couldn't win another game. The pressure on him from the world number one was massive and in an attempt to go for the lines, he kept missing his shots and unforced errors were flying from his racket. 

The third set was the same story, the only difference being the fact that the Serbian  didn't allow the Taiwanese to win a game until the sixth game where Lu escaped the bagel set which looked inevitable when the number one player from Serbia went 0-30 up on the Taiwanese's serve. Djokovic didn't seem bothered by that and he sealed the deal in the next game with a love hold, finishing it in style, with a nice drop shot. 

 Novak Djokovic is through to the second round in Paris where he will face Steve Darcis from Belgium (credit: Chris Brunskill; Getty images)
Novak Djokovic is through to the second round in Paris where he will face Steve Darcis from Belgium (Photo: Ian MacNicol;Getty)
 


A Look at the Final Match Statistics

You can safely say Djokovic was better than his opponent in every department. Both had similar numbers when it comes to first serves in, 70 percent for the Serbian versus 69 percent for the Chinese Taipei native; However Djokovic won 76 percent of his first serves and Lu only 48 percent of his. Djokovic also did better on his second serve and won 74 percent behind it as opposed to only 42 percent from his opponent.  

He also had more winners and less unforced errors than Lu (35 winners to only 22 unforced errors versus 13 winners and 25 unforced errors from Lu). Djokovic also won far more points on his opponent's serve, 53 percent against only 25 percent from the number 95 player in the world.  Finally, he won 7 of 14 break points to only 1 of 1 for Lu. Djokovic should definitely be pleased with his statistics in this match. 

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About the author
Moran Noyman
Hi, my name is Moran and I'm a huge fan of tennis and of Novak Djokovic. I'm a graphic designer but I also love to write and had my own blog about my tennis views (especially on Djokovic).