No. 4 seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia eased past Flavio Cobolli of Italy 6-1, 6-2 to cruise into the men's singles fourth round at the Shanghai Masters in east China's Shanghai Municipality on Tuesday.
Djokovic took an early lead in the opening set by leveraging the baseline exchanges with clean strikes from both wings. The quick opener encouraged him to put more pressure on Cobolli in the second set. Though the Italian managed to hold serve twice, he failed to resist Djokovic's aggressive attacks in the fifth game, seeing another smooth triumph for his opponent since then.
\"Great level of tennis I think from me from the beginning. I had a clear game plan of what I need to do and how to execute it,\" Djokovic said, adding that the long match last night affected the Italian's physical condition.
Entering the fourth round, Djokovic will meet Roman Safiullin of Russia. \"I have played him a couple times before, so I know his quality. He loves to play fast, take the ball on the rise, so I have to be very sharp for that one,\" Djokovic noted.
Reference(s):
Djokovic defeats Cobolli, into Shanghai Masters fourth round
cgtn.com
