No problems for Djokovic

Dutchman de Bakker makes it past first hurdle on home soil

Last updated: 10th February 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

No problems for Djokovic

Djokovic: Easy victory

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Novak Djokovic eased through to the second round of the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament after opponent Sergiy Stakhovsky was forced to retire hurt.

The top seed had won the first set 6-2 and was 4-1 ahead in the second when the Ukrainian had to withdraw due to a knee injury.

Djokovic was in action for just 54 minutes in Rotterdam, his first outing since losing in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in Melbourne.

"I'm motivated, I want to do well this week," said the Serbian. "I did well at the Open and had a good end of season in 2009."

Seed tumbles

Next up for the world number two will be Switzerland's Marco Chiudinelli, who ousted 2008 champion Michael Llodra of France 6-1 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (8-6).

Seventh-seeded Ivan Ljubicic suffered an early exit from the event, though, as he was beaten 6-3 6-3 by Julien Benneteau of France.

Despite hammering down 11 aces, the Croatian became the first big-name casualty after one hour and 39 minutes on court.

Turkish qualifier Marsel Ilhan won just his second match of the 2010 season when he saw off Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-1 6-4.

Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker was also a straight-sets winner, beating Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 on home soil.

In the final match on court on Tuesday, sixth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny battled back from a set down to defeat Kazakh qualifier Andrey Golubev 1-6 7-6 (7-0) 7-6 (7-5).