The Western and Southern Open also known as Cincinnati Open is currently being held in the Flushing Meadows, the home of the US Open. Following the ATP 1000 event is the US Open. Novak Djokovic restarted his season with a rather injury-hit victory over Ricardas Berankis.

Recently Djokovic had withdrawn from the doubles event in the Cincinnati Open owing to a sore neck. His 2nd round match against Berankis was frequently interrupted after the Serbian had to call his physio. But the Serbian had enough to pass Berankis.

Novak Djokovic comments on the faster courts

Another major difference that troubled Djokovic was the pace of the court. Over the years courts in the US Open have been slowing down. This year though the US Open has resurfaced the courts. All courts have been changed and so supposedly they are much faster than before. And as the Cincinnati Open is in Flushing Meadows, players will try to come to terms with the court speed before the US open begins.

After his match, Djokovic claimed that the surface is 20 to 30 percent faster than before.

“I don’t know what have they done with the surface, but it’s at least 20-30% faster than it used time, so it takes time to adjust,” Djokovic said

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The faster court could be one of the reasons why we have seen a lot of upsets in the first few days of the restart. 2nd seed Dominic Theim was thrashed by Filip Krajanovic 6-2 6-1. Further, 5th seed Alexander Zverev was defeated by Andy Murray 6-3 3-6 7-5.

On the women’s side. The top two seeds Karolina Pliskova and Australian Open champ Sofia Kenin were dispatched easily by Veronika Kudermetova and Alize Cornet respectively. Serena Williams also had to go till the third set to defeat 72nd ranked Arantxa Rus. So with the change in court speed and rusty hands, players will have to hit the practice courts and come back to their old prowess.