Novak Djokovic had to fight in his first match since Melbourne triumph but in the second round, he already dominated.
In the first round at the 2023 Dubai Championships, the Serb had to play a third-set tie-break against inspired Tomas Machac to eventually book the second-round spot. In the second round, Djokovic took on Tallon Griekspoor from the Netherlands, who is a very dangerous player on all surfaces. He defeated Constant Lestienne and after losing to Djokovic at the 2021 US Open, he wanted to improve his stats against the 22-time Grand Slam champion.
But that was really far from happening. Djokovic started with a bang, winning 13 of the first 15 rallies and sprinting away with an early 3-0 lead in the first set.
After the second game, the match was stopped for a brief period as a few rain drops appeared on the court and it had to be wiped to ensure the safety of both players, who were fighting for a quarterfinal spot at the 2023 Dubai Championships.
That didn't distract Djokovic from adding another break in the eighth game to win the first set 6-2 in just 30 minutes. But that still wasn't the best from the Serb.
In the second set, he changed into a beast mode and never allowed his opponent to think about a victory. He broke Griekspoor two times and had two break points on his serve to win the second set 6-0.
But the Dutch player showed the last bit of resistance as he held his serve and even broke Djokovic in the next game, despite the Serb leading 30-0.
Eventually, Djokovic won the match in an hour and 13 minutes, 6-2, 6-3, and booked a quarterfinal match with the winner of a meeting between the fifth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz and qualifier Pavel Kotov.
In the match, Djokovic hit 28 winners and made only 6 unforced errors, showing the dominance that he's known for. He also improved to 14-0 in 2023, staying unbeaten also in March.
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