Djokovic eases past Jaziri, Monfils, Gasquet also through in Dubai

Novak Djokovic, Gael Monfils, and Richard Gasquet successfully handled their first-round matches at the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championship.

After victories of Andrey Rublev, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Karen Khachanov, another trio added their names to the list of 2nd round participants in Dubai. It was a day of two-set matches in the United Arab Emirates as the German was the only player to win in three sets. All Rublev, Khachanov, Djokovic, Monfils, and Gasquet got through already after two sets.

The Frenchman Richard Gasquet opened the second set of matches in Dubai against the qualifier George Harris. Harris had a stunning beginning of the season when he faced Rublev in the final at the Adelaide International. However, since that moment, the player from South Africa was not so successful what was proved also in Dubai. Gasquet did not experience any major difficulties; winning 7-6, 6-4.

Malek Jaziri has a long history of facing top seeds in Dubai. In 2017, it was Andy Murray and in 2018 Grigor Dimitrov. In that year, Jaziri managed to get to the semifinals, however, he won't manage to do that again this year. World number 1, Novak Djokovic stood in the way of the Tunisian. Djokovic defeated Jaziri comfortably 6-1, 6-2 in an hour.

Another Frenchman, Gael Monfils, was there to close the first day in Dubai. The third-seeded player faced the Hungarian Marton Fucsovics. The crowd in the United Arab Emirates enjoyed two hours of quality tennis when Monfils managed to win 6-4, 7-5.

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