World No.2 Novak Djokovic sounded a warning to his rivals ahead of the Australian Open following his latest dismantling of Gael Monfils on Monday night at the ATP Cup.
Djokovic. the defending Australian Open champion who is seeking a record-extending eighth title at Melbourne Park, dropped just five games against Monfils at Brisbane’s Pat Rafter Arena, a marquee match-up pitting two top-10 players against one another.
The victory kept Serbia alive in its clash with France, which will come down to a live doubles match after Benoit Paire held off Dusan Lajovic in three sets in the opening singles match.
A win would push Serbia to the top of Group A with one more match to come in the round-robin stage, against Chile.
The result also extended Djokovic’s record over Monfils to an incredible 16-0, a head-to-head series dating back almost 15 years.
Smooth sailing…@DjokerNole stretches his record vs Monfils to 16-0(!), levelling Serbia-France at 1-1#ATPCup pic.twitter.com/BojQLHqJNT
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) January 6, 2020
"Obviously playing Gael, it's never easy -- you're coming into the court knowing you're going to have a lot of exchanges, a lot of rallies,” Djokovic said.
"He's a great fighter, and a great friend of mine, so I wish him all the best. Tough luck today."
Djokovic played relatively clean tennis throughout the 91-minute affair, with sporadic injections of pace on his groundstrokes – including his stinging forehand winner on match point – proving too much for the world No.9 to handle.
Things began to unravel for Monfils in the sixth game of the opening set when he overcooked a swinging volley winner – perhaps forced to go for too much in deference to Djokovic’s defensive capabilities.
Djokovic surged ahead 5-2 and although Monfils had chances to get the set back on serve in the ninth game, they went begging.
Tellingly, the Frenchman was unable to convert any of the nine break point opportunities he created during the match.
After he held serve in the opening game of the second set, Djokovic reeled off five straight games to put the result effectively beyond doubt.
Also displaying ominous form ahead of the year’s first Grand Slam event was Rafael Nadal, who was even more dominant in Perth against Pablo Cuevas.
The world No.1 beat the Uruguayan 6-2 6-1, delivering Spain an unbeatable 2-0 lead after teammate Roberto Bautista Agut beat Franco Roncadelli by a near-identical scoreline.
Spain faces Japan – the other nation so far undefeated in Group B – in two days’ time, in a bid to qualify for the Final Eight in Sydney.
Sydney is where Dominic Thiem on Monday night rebounded from his opening loss to Borna Coric to score a 6-3 7-6(3) win over Diego Schwartzman.
With Denis Novak’s earlier 0-6 6-4 6-4 win over Guido Pella, Austria emerged victorious over Argentina.
Earlier in the day in Sydney, Croatia defeated Poland 2-1 to lead Group E.
Coric’s 6-2 6-2 loss to Hubert Hurkacz followed former world No.3 Marin Cilic’s straight sets win over Kacper Zuk, meaning the tie came down to the doubles match – won comfortably by Ivan Dodig and Nikola Mektic over Hurkacz and Lukasz Kubot.