Djokovic Enjoys Artois Championships Debut Win

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World No. 4 Novak Djokovic was made to work hard by American Robert Kendrick before getting his debut at The Artois Championships off to a winning start on Wednesday.

Djokovic, who was the star of Episode 2 of the Artois Tennis Podcast (download now), recovered from the loss of the first set before winning 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to book his place in the third round against Frenchman Arnaud Clement.

“I'm happy to win considering the fact that this is my first grass court season match,” said Djokovic. “I didn't get an easy draw. I played against a player who plays really well on this surface, and he had a couple of matches before this one, so he was very well prepared. You could see that in the first set.”

The 20-year-old from Serbia was playing in just the 10th grass court match of his career – the lowest of any of the world’s Top 10 – while Kendrick, who led Rafael Nadal by two sets at Wimbledon last year before losing in five, was fresh from his straight sets win over Ernests Gulbis in the first round.

After Kendrick took the first set, Djokovic broke early in the second before the match took an unexpected twist.

With Djokovic serving at 4-2, Kendrick lunged for a volley only to fall awkwardly and twist his left knee. After taking a medical timeout, the American continued with strapping to his knee, but could not prevent the Serb from taking the set and forcing a decider.

Djokovic, a winner in Adelaide, Miami and Estoril this year, broke Kendrick to lead 3-2 in the final set and three more games soon followed as he wrapped up his victory in 1 hour, 33 minutes.

“I feel pretty good,” added Djokovic, who reached the semifinals at Roland Garros last week. “Even though I was careful, I was moving well. Physically I'm feeling pretty good. After the French Open, I was a little bit exhausted, but I had two days off to recover.”