Lacklustre Djokovic advances in Dubai

Published February 26, 2009

DUBAI, Feb 25: Novak Djokovic produced a lacklustre performance to earn a 6-3,

6-2 victory over Italian qualifier Flavio Cipolla in the first round of the Dubai Open on Tuesday.

Results (prefix denotes seeding):

First round: Dmitry Tursunov (Russia) bt Andreas Seppi (Italy) 6-1, 6-4; 1-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) bt Flavio Cipolla (Italy) 6-3, 6-2; 6-Igor Andreev (Russia) bt Rik De Voest (South Africa) 6-4, 6-0; Arnaud Clement (France) bt Rainer Schuettler (Germany) 1-6, 6-3, 6-3; Richars Gasquet (France) bt 8-Marat Safin (Russia) 6-3, 5-7, 6-3; Jan Hernych (Czech Republic) bt Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) 4-6, 6-1, 6-4; Simone Bolelli (Italy) bt Viktor Troicki (Serbia) 6-3, 6-4; 3-Gilles Simon (France) bt Mohammed Al Ghareeb (Kuwait) 5-7, 6-4, 6-4; Julien Benneteau (France) bt Juergen Melzer (Austria) 1-6, 6-3, 6-3; Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) bt Michael Lammer (Switzerland) 6-1, 6-1.

FISH SURVIVES

DELRAY BEACH (Florida): Mardy Fish survived a scare from Canadian qualifier Frank Dancevic to win 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the Delray Beach International on Tuesday.

Results:

First round: 1-Mardy Fish (US) bt Frank Dancevic (Canada) 7-5, 6-3; Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) bt 3-Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) 7-5, 6-2; Mischa Zverev (Germany) bt Taylor Dent (US) 6-4, 6-3; 7-Jeremy Chardy (France) bt Tommy Haas (Germany) 7-6(7), 6-3; Andrey Golubev (Kazakhstan) bt Evan King (US) 6-2, 6-4; 8-Lu Yen-hsun (Taiwan) bt Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) 7-5, 2-6, 6-2; Evgeny Korolev (Russia) bt 4-Igor Kunitsyn (Russia) 6-4, 7-6(3); Vince Spadea (US) bt Denis Gremelmayr (Germany) 2-6, 7-5, 6-1; Gilles Muller (Luxembourg) bt Ryan Sweeting (US) 7-6(5), 6-2; Dudi Sela (Israel) bt Philipp Petzschner (Germany) 6-3, 4-1 (Petzschner retired).—Reuters

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