Novak Djokovic had a tense match against Aleksandar Vukic in round 2 of Indian Wells, the Serbian player won 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 to advance.

After losing to Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals of the Australian Open in January, Djokovic spent more than a month resting before attending Indian Wells.

With an ATP ranking of 69, Vukic was not highly appreciated before the match with Djokovic. It seemed like the Serbian tennis player only had to fight with himself in the first match, but Vukic suddenly caused many difficulties by executing many good forehand shots, forcing Djokovic to play with maximum concentration.

Djokovic
Djokovic played hard in the opening match (Photo: ATP).

Advertising by DTads
Vukic played better in the long battles with Djokovic, scoring 19 points from the baseline while Djokovic only had 13 points, including 18 points from the forehand. However, Djokovic won 83% of the points on the first serve and responded well when the opponent served again, leaving Vukic with only 27% of the points on the second serve.

Djokovic got off to a good start with a break in the first game of the first set. Quickly breaking through, the Serbian player won another break in the 7th game to advance to a very quick 6-2 victory.

However, Djokovic did not start well in the second set, he let his opponent have an early break. Vukic, after saving a triple break point in the third game, was unable to prolong the advantage. He was called for a break in the fifth game. After a fierce chase, Djokovic made a mistake in game 12, losing the break in the next game. Now he has no chance to correct his mistake. Vukic won 7-5 and equalized the score 1-1.

In the deciding set, Djokovic played firmly. He had a break in the 5th and 9th games, thereby winning quickly 6-3 and ending the match with a 2-1 victory after 2 hours and 12 minutes.

Djokovic holds a record of 40 Masters 1000 titles. With the victory over Vukic, the Serbian tennis player reached the milestone of 400 victories, along with Rafael Nadal (406) are the two players with over 400 victories at the Masters 1000 arena.

Returning to the tournament in California after a five-year absence, Djokovic is aiming to win a record sixth title at Tennis Paradise, making him the third person to achieve 1,100 career wins. The last time Djokovic won Indian Wells was in 2016, when he lifted the trophy at this tournament for the third consecutive year.

Djokovic has set a record of 415 weeks at No. 1 on the ATP rankings and he will certainly continue to extend the record after Indian Well. Next, the Serbian player will meet Luca Nardi, the Italian player who received a wild card who unexpectedly defeated Zhang Zhizhen in the second round with a score of 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to advance.