French Open 2021: Novak Djokovic wins for the 350th time at a grand slam, defeats Pablo Cuevas in second round
Follow Us
Novak Djokovic
World No.1, Novak Djokovic cruised into the third round of the 2021 French Open with a straight sets victory over Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay. The Serb got broken just once in the entire match and beat Cuevas with a dominant scoreline of 6-3,6-2,6-4.
The match was played at Court Suzanne Lenglen due to the tight scheduling of Roger Federer‘s and Rafael Nadal‘s matches at Chatrier, a rather different sight for the top seed, who is used to play on Chatrier. But that didn’t affect Djokovic in any way.
Pablo Cuevas went guns blazing early on in the first set. He was returning almost everything and made life difficult for Djokovic. He even broke Djokovic in the third game to take a 2-1 lead but lost momentum thereafter. The top seed broke back in the very next game and went on to hold serve. The intensity of both players grew as the match progressed but they were holding serve very well. Djokovic got the decisive break in the eighth game and consolidated it to win the first set 6-3 in 42 minutes.
Djokovic eases into the Round of 32
The second set had Djokovic written all over it. The Serb broke Cuevas in the opening set and soon took a 3-1 lead. He was serving better as compared to the opening set and was making world class returns, like he always does. He again broke the Uruguayan star in the fifth game and stormed off to a 5-1 lead. Djokovic eventually served out the set and won it 6-2 in just 32 minutes.
The final set was no different than the first two. Djokovic was as dominant as ever hitting winners left, right and center throughout the set. Cuevas too was playing better but had no answers for the 18-time grand slam champion. The Uruguayan fell into Djokovic’s trap and got broken in the very first game. The remainder of the set was on serve as Djokovic closed out the set at 6-4 and prevailed into the next round.
The top seed will now face Ricardas Berankis in the third round on Friday who defeated James Duckworth in the second round in four sets 7-5,2-6,7-6(4),6-0.
Also read: French Open 2021: Coco Gauff storms into the third round, defeats Wang Qiang again
Stay Updated!
Lakshya Chopra
(2595 Articles Published)