Olympics 2021: 3 talking points from Novak Djokovic's 1r win over Hugo Dellien
World No. 1 and 20-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic has eased his way to the second round of the tennis event at the Tokyo Olympics. The Serb defeated unseeded Bolivian Hugo Dellien 6-2, 6-2 on Saturday, taking a little over an hour to get the job done.
Djokovic had an average start to the match, but he shook off the rust quickly to get into his groove by the middle of the first set. The 34-year-old showed his class with a couple of sublime inside-out forehands to close out the opening frame 6-2.
Djokovic was much better in the second set, especially on his serve, as he hammered down seven aces. He finished off the match by breaking his opponent's serve with a forehand winner down the line.
The Serb will now take on Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff in the second round. Struff had a good outing as well, defeating Brazil's Thiago Monteiro in straight sets 6-3, 6-4.
Djokovic has a 5-0 lead against Struff in their head-to-head, but will be wary of the German's ability to put up a strong fight.
But before we get to that, here are three talking points from Djokovic's win over Dellien:
1. No signs of a let-down for Novak Djokovic
Having recently won the French Open and Wimbledon, there was a possibility that Novak Djokovic might have experienced some sort of physical or mental let-down at the Olympics. But apart from a slightly off-color start, Djokovic faced no problem at all as he dominated the proceedings on a hot day.
Djokovic broke Dellien's serve twice in each set and did not face any break points himself. The Serb was clinical for most of the match, which would be a worrying sign for the rest of the field.
2. Novak Djokovic faced trouble converting break points
The start of the match saw Novak squandering a lot of opportunities to break Hugo Dellien's serve. He had four break points in the first two games and was even leading 0-40 at 2-1, but he failed to convert any of those chances.
The World No. 1 will be hoping to do a better job with his break-point conversion when he goes up against Jan-Lennard Struff in the next round.
3. Novak Djokovic lost just 4 points on his serve
While he didn't have a great day with his first serve percentage (61% first serves in), Novak Djokovic managed to win all 14 points on his second serve. In fact, he lost only four points on his serve in the entire match, and all those points were on the first serve.
Djokovic has worked hard to improve his serve over the years. Once the least impressive part of his game, the serve has now become a strong weapon in the Serb's arsenal. And the match against Dellien was just the latest exhibit of that.