Novak Djokovic fought his way into the third round of the Italian Open on Friday, beating Tomas Etcheverry 7-5 (7/6), 6-2 in a surprisingly tight encounter.
A six-time winner in Rome, Djokovic was made to work by the Argentine, prevailing in one hour, 51 minutes to set up a third round clash with Grigor Dimitrov who beat Stan Wawrinka earlier in the day.
Djokovic has not been knocked out of an ATP tour event at the first attempt since the Monte Carlo Masters last year, just his second tournament last season following his refusal to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
Still nursing an injury to his right elbow he had to battle his way past Etcheverry, winning the first set via a tie-break before finally ensuring passage into the next round.
??Seed gets the W ?? @DjokerNole grew into the match to get past Etcheverry in straight sets.@InteBNLdItalia | #IBI23 pic.twitter.com/Nw3PIYuTjv
— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 12, 2023
Djokovic said that he was feeling good ahead of the tournament despite missing last week's Madrid Masters.
Wearing an elbow brace he made a slow start, dropping his serve in the first game and struggling to deal with the Argentine's powerful shots.
The first set hinged on a scrappy game six, in which Djokovic broke to level the scores following a battle at deuce.
From there, the set went with the serve until Djokovic won the final four points in the tie-break to take the lead.
Djokovic then kicked up a level, breaking serve in the first and seventh games of the second set to give the match a more straight-forward look than Etcheverry's performance deserved.
Earlier, Jannick Sinner cruised into the men's last 32 with a straight-sets win over Thanasi Kokkinakis, 6-1, 6-4.
World No 8 Sinner took one hour, 18 minutes to deal with Australian qualifier Kokkinakis, and will play Russian Alexander Shevchenko, who beat Argentine Sebastian Baez 6-3, 6-4.
Rome has not seen an Italian tournament winner since Adriano Panatta in 1976, and Sinner has had a decent season, winning in Montpellier in February and losing the finals in Miami and Rotterdam to Daniil Medvedev.
He also reached the semifinals at Indian Wells, losing to eventual winner Carlos Alcaraz.
Briton Cameron Norrie strolled past French qualifier Alexandre Muller 6-2, 6-3 to set up a clash with Marton Fucsovics in the next round after the Hungarian beat Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-4.