Rome tournament | Djokovic, Zverev and Dimitrov advance to next round, Ruud eliminated

Favorite Novak Djokovic made his debut on Friday at the Rome Tennis Open and scored a 6-3, 6-1 victory against Frenchman Corentin Moutet.

The Serbian, first in the world, made the only ace of the confrontation, while no double fault was committed.

Djokovic recorded a streak of 10 points won in a row in the duel. He converted six out of nine break points.

Also in a second round match, Alexander Zverev easily defeated Aleksandar Vukic 6-0, 6-4.

Eighth seed Grigor Dimitrov defeated Yoshihito Nishioka 7-5, 6-4, and also advanced to the third round.

Third seed in the tournament and fifth player in the world, Zverev won the first set in just 32 minutes. The German hit eight aces and achieved a 65% success rate in first serves.

Zverev only faced two break points in the match. He broke Vukic six times.

Dimitrov beat Nishioka in one hour 37 minutes. Despite only 47% successful first serves, he dominated with 11 aces against three.

The Bulgarian did not offer any break points to his opponent. Dimitrov’s 32 winning shots also dominated the Japanese’s seven winning shots.

Americans Ben Shelton and Sebastian Korda qualified for the next round. Shelton won 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 against Pavel Kotov and Korda defeated local favorite Flavio Cobolli 7-6 (6), 4-6, 6-4.

Italian Lorenzo Musetti, 26^e seeded, was trailing 7-5, 1-0 when he withdrew from his duel against Frenchman Térence Atmane.

Another local favorite, Fabio Fognini also saw his tournament end with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat against the American and 11^e top seed, Taylor Fritz.

Fifth-seeded Norwegian Casper Ruud started the match well, but ultimately lost 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Miomir Kecmanovic late in the morning. Ruud committed five double faults, including four in the second set.

Among the women, the Tunisian Ons Jabeur was defeated in three sets of 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 by Sofia Kenin. The American won the match in two hours 19 minutes.

Fifth seed Maria Sakkari quickly defeated Varvara Gracheva 6-2, 6-2, while Elina Svitolina did even better with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Sara Errani.

Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Garcia, Danielle Collins and Jelena Ostapenko also won their respective matches.