Eastbourne: Novak Djokovic clinched his first title since January with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Gael Monfils in the final of the Eastbourne Open tennis tournament, while Karolina Pliskova lifted the women’s trophy after defeating Caroline Wozniacki.
Djokovic, playing the week before Wimbledon for the first time since 2010, captured his 68th career title – but just the second this year – after downing Monfils for the 14th time in as many meetings.
“It’s been a great decision to come here,” Djokovic, whose form has dramatically tailed off since completing the career Grand Slam at last year’s French Open, told ‘Eurosport’. “Coming to Eastbourne I obviously haven’t had as much success as in previous seasons during the first six months.”
The Serb, who will have former players Andre Agassi and Mario Ancic on his Wimbledon coaching team, spent only an hour and a quarter in taming the French second seed. He didn’t drop serve, while breaking Monfils three times en route to his first grass-court title outside of Wimbledon.
Earlier, third seed Pliskova beat Danish sixth seed Wozniacki 6-4, 6-4 to underline her status as a Wimbledon title contender.
The Czech secured her third title of the season after breaking Wozniacki once in both sets, leaving the Dane still searching for a first trophy since her win in Hong Kong last October.
“I just wanted to play some matches and to see how it goes and to have some hits on grass, especially when I came from Czech (Republic), I didn’t practise much on grass,” Pliskova said.
“That’s what happened, and it came out that I got the title. I didn’t really expect it,” she added.
Agence France-Presse