Djokovic Makes Winning Return; Youzhny Battles Past Qualifier

© Getty ImagesMarco Chiudinelli improved to a 3-4 match record this year.

World No. 2 Novak Djokovic made a winning return to the ATP World Tour circuit on Tuesday at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.

In his first match since reaching the Australian Open quarter-finals (l. to Tsonga) last month, the top-seeded Serbian was leading World No. 69 Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-2, 4-1 after 55 minutes of play when the Ukrainian retired with a left knee injury. Djokovic had won 81 per cent of service points. He improved to a 5-1 match record on the year.

“Every first round is tricky because you have to get used to the surface, you have to get used to the surrounding and atmosphere in the stadium,” said Djokovic. “I did really well adapting to it from the start. I felt quite comfortable on the court, and very dominant.”

Djokovic will next meet Swiss Marco Chiudinelli, whom he battled back to defeat in four sets in the second round of the Australian Open. 

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Chiudinelli knocked out 2008 champion Michael Llodra of France 6-1, 6-7(5), 7-6(6) in two hours and 37 minutes, as he withstood 16 aces from Llodra's racquet to record his third tour-level win of the year. The Swiss No. 3, currently No. 54 in the South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings, held a 6-1 lead in the third set tie-break before No. 70-ranked Llodra fought back to 6-6.

Another former Rotterdam champion, sixth-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny, escaped an upset in his first-round match as he recovered from a slow start to defeat Kazakh qualifier Andrey Golubev 1-6, 7-6(0), 7-6(5) in two hours and 18 minutes. Both players were strong on serve in the second and third sets, with neither earning a single break point chance. 

Youzhny won the Rotterdam title in 2007 after posting wins against four Top 20 players over the course of the week, including Djokovic in the semi-finals and Ljubicic in the final. 

Croatian Ivan Ljubicic suffered a third successive first-round exit in Rotterdam on Tuesday. The seventh seed, who reached the 2005 (l. to Federer) and 2007 (l. to Youzhny) finals, dropped to 14-8 lifetime at the ATP World Tour 500 indoor event, after being beaten 6-3, 6-3 by Julien Benneteau of France.

Benneteau won 67 per cent of service points, hit six aces and saved all four break points he faced for victory in one hour and 40 minutes. It was his first win over Ljubicic since March 2004 at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. Ljubicic, 30, hit 11 aces and saved eight of 11 break points.

Benneteau will next meet either compatriot Arnaud Clement, this year's Heineken Open runner-up in Auckland (l. to Isner), or last week's PBZ Zagreb Indoors finalist, German Michael Berrer (l. to Cilic), in the second round.

Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez fell to a 0-4 season record after Turkish qualifier Marsel Ilhan won 6-1, 6-4 in just 59 minutes. Local wild card Thiemo de Bakker hit nine aces past lucky loser Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic in a 7-6(5), 6-3 win in one hour and 35 minutes.