Novak Djokovic finally played a competitive match after 6 months as he defeated Ricardas Berankis in the 2nd round of Western & Southern Open. In an easy looking scoreboard Djokovic did face a lot of troubles en route to victory.

Earlier Djokovic withdrew from the doubles event in the Western & Southern Open. A sore neck forced the World No.1 to withdraw from doubles. And the effects of the injury were seen in the match as well.

“I’ve had a problem for four days now, but it’s going well.” – Novak Djokovic

Djokovic frequently had to call his physio on the court to ail his neck. After the match, Djokovic said that he has had issues with his neck for the past four days. And surely he and his fans will be hoping that it doesn’t get any worse and threaten his US Open participation

“It’s better. I’ve had a problem for four days now, but it’s going well. I hope it doesn’t get worse after this match. I’ll do whatever it takes with the physiotherapist,” Novak said (the quotes are translated from Serbian using Google Translate)

Due to his neck, Djokovic made a lot of double faults and had a rather predictable serve.

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That problem affected my game in this match, I made a lot of double faults and he knew exactly where I was going to serve. The surface is really fast, it took me a while to get used to it.” he said

Read More: “It Takes Time to Adjust”: Novak Djokovic Complains of Faster Courts at Western & Southern Open

Coupled with the neck injury was the pace of the court. The courts at Flushing Meadows were resurfaced and now are much faster than before. Djokovic felt the pace and took time to adjust.

Novak Djokovic next plays Tennys Sandgren. The Serbian has a 100% head-to-head record against the American. Djokovic will be working closely with his physio to eliminate the neck injury and continue his unbeaten run in 2020. Djokovic’s win record is 19-0 this year.