Brisbane, Australia - Novak Djokovic's upcoming defence of
his Australian Open title was plunged into chaos on Tuesday as the
Serb crashed out 6-4, 6-4 in his opening match at the Brisbane
International.
The world number two was upset in his first match of the season
and now has no chance this week of gaining ranking ground on Roger
Federer competing in Doha.
But while Djokovic admitted that his arrival only last weekend in
Australia after spending New Year's eve in Monte Carlo may have
backfired, he's far from panic stations.
'I didn't get a lot of practice because I came too late, I also
didn't feel fresh on the court,' he said. 'It's not the end of the
world. It's the first match.
'I'm not panicking, and I'm not in big doubt. The Australian Open
is my highest goal at this time of the year, I really want to play
well there. I have plenty of lot of time to prepare.'
Djokovic has the option of taking a wild card at next week's
Medibank International in Sydney to get some matches or heading
straight to Melbourne to prepare for the January 19 start of the
Grand Slam on his own.
Gulbis earned his first win over his former teenaged companion at
a Munich tennis academy after losing to Djokovic at the French Open
and Cincinnati Masters last year.
Djokovic lasted just 88 minutes as he was upset by the world
number 53, with Gulbis breaking in the fifth game of the opening set
to start his roll to victory.
The Latvian emerged the steadier after four breaks to start the
second set, recovering from a break down with a break-back in the
ninth game before claiming victory on the first of three match points
with his fourth ace of the afternoon.
Czech fifth seed Tomas Berdych advanced to the second round as he
crushed Australian hopeful Brendan Klein 6-0, 6-4, adding to the run
of losses for the host nation over the opening two days at the new
event.
A pair of Frenchman moved through, with Paul-Henri Mathieu
defeating Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia 6-3, 6-3 and Florent Serra
knocking former French Open winner Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain 6-3,
7-6 (7-3).
Croatia Mario Ancic outlasted American Amir Delic 7-6 (7-2), 6-7
(4-7), 7-6 (8-6); rising Japanese Kei Nishikori defeated Bobby
Reynolds 6-3, 6-2.
On the women's side, second seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus
opened with a win against Slovak Jarmila Gajdosova 7-6 (7-4), 7-5.
2007 Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli spent 90 minutes in
stopping Hungarian Melinda Czink 5-7, 6-3, 6-1.
USA
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