Latvian Ernests Gulbis defeated Novak Djokovic at the Brisbane International tournament 6-4, 6-4. Despite this loss, Djokovic says he is still on track for his title defense. Those who were watching this match will agree that he never looked quite comfortable and Djokovic said there were a number of reasons why he didn’t play well.

"I didn’t play at all good today and I knew that the first match was going to be a very difficult one, especially if I played against a player who doesn’t give me a lot of rhythm," he said.

"I changed a lot of things so there’s still some things I’m not used to and unfortunately I got this result."

Djokovic also said that he didn’t get a lot of practice time in on the court because he arrived to Australia late. So does that mean he will go straight to Melbourne to prepare for Australian Open, which begins on January 19th? He doesn’t know yet.

"I’m not panicking, I’m not seriously in big doubt really — the Australian Open is my highest goal at this time of the year and I really want to play well there," he said.

"It’s all right because I have a lot of time to prepare for the Australian Open. It’s not the end of the world. It’s the first match (of the year) so I’m still trying not to be very pessimistic."

Here are the results for the Brisbane International men’s singles for January 5th and 6th:

Second round
7-Richard Gasquet (France) beat Taylor Dent (U.S.) 7-5 6-4 
4-Robin Soderling (Sweden) beat Julien Benneteau (France) 6-3
6-3

First round
2-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) beat Agustin Calleri
(Argentina) 6-2 7-5 
Michael Llodra (France) beat Joseph Sirianni (Australia) 5-7
7-6(3) 6-2
Kei Nishikori (Japan) beat Bobby Reynolds (U.S.) 6-3 6-2
Mario Ancic (Croatia) beat Amer Delic (U.S.) 7-6(2) 6-7(4)
7-6(6)
Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) beat Teimuraz Gabashvili (Russia)
6-3 6-3
Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) beat 1-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) 6-4 6-4
Florent Serra (France) beat Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) 6-3 7-6
5-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) beat Brydan Klein (Australia)
6-0 6-4

Source: Reuters and Google News

Image Credit: Bauer Griffin

Post from: EveryJoe

Brisbane International Update #1 – Men’s Tennis