Eastbourne (England): Seeded No. 2 at Wimbledon this year, World No. 4 Novak Djokovic said here Thursday that he feels it ‘liberating’ after not being dubbed among the top ‘favourites’ in this year’s edition of the event.
Djokovic, playing his first tournament on grass this season at the Eastbourne Open entered the third round with a hard-fought 6-2, 7-6(11-9) win over US qualifier Donald Young. He looked a bit edgy in the second set, faced two set points, but came up with brilliant shots when it mattered the most.
“I was very fortunate and privileged to have so much success in the last eight or nine years and entered most of the tournaments as one of the biggest favourites to win it,” Djokovic told reporters after the match. “So for a change it’s good to not be one of the top favourites. It is liberating. It releases a bit of the pressure. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to win the trophies and so forth,” he added. In other matches played on the day, John Isner bt Djokan Lajovic 6-3, 6-7(3-7), 7-6(7-4) while Richard Gasquet beat Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-4.
In the women’s segment top seed Angelique Kerber won her second match on grass this season with a 6-2, 6-1 win over VL Arruabarena of Belgium. British favourite Johanna Konta also got some much-needed practice of grass with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 win over French Open champion Julia Ostapenko.
Agencies