US Open 2013: Novak Djokovic completes crushing win over Joao Sousa
The world number one eases into week two
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Novak Djokovic continued the dominance of the top seeds in the men's singles with a crushing win over Portugal's Joao Sousa in the third round of the US Open.
Andy Murray is the only one of the big four to drop a set so far and, after Roger Federer allowed Adrian Mannarino just five games on Saturday night, Djokovic was even more emphatic.
It took the world number one only 28 minutes to wrap up the first set to love, and he went on to win 6-0 6-2 6-2 in and hour and 40 minutes.
Sousa made his main-draw debut in New York this year and was through to the third round of a grand slam for the first time.
But it had had cost him a lot of effort to get there, with five-set victories over Grigor Dimitrov and Jarkko Nieminen in the first two rounds.
The world number 95 took a medical timeout at the end of the opening set to have his left thigh massaged, and he at last managed to get on the board in the eighth game of the match.
That was an effort in itself, though, and his serve was broken again in the sixth game of the set.
Djokovic then cruised through the first five games of set three before a last hurrah from Sousa.
The Portuguese held his serve and then earned huge cheers from the night-session crowd for a first break of the match only to have his own serve broken to love to end the match.
Djokovic has been working hard on bringing extra variety to his game and added Ivan Lendl's former coach Wojtek Fibak to his team before the start of the tournament.
The Serb, who will play Spain's Marcel Granollers in the last 16, said: "I am not obviously as comfortable at the net as I am on the baseline, but I've been working on it. It's part of my game that I still need to improve. I'm aware of that.
"It makes me happy that I have room for improvement, and I keep on spending hours and hours on the court and working on variety in my game.
"And the serve, especially that part of my game. I want to try and get as many free points on the serve as possible."
PA
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments