Novak Djokovic dismissed Ivan Dodig of Croatia 6-4, 6-3 in the Paris Masters second round on Wednesday amid concerns about the shoulder injury that bothered him last weekend at the Swiss Indoors.
The top-ranked Djokovic complained of shoulder pain in his semifinal loss to Kei Nishikori in Basel. He said he was fine after practice on Tuesday.
If Djokovic had withdrawn from Paris, he risked losing a $1.6 million bonus paid to the elite players for appearing in all eight Masters events. Djokovic didnt play in Shanghai because of the injury and would have lost the entire bonus if he hadnt started in Paris.
He looked good on Wednesday. Dodig dropped serve at 5-4 with a backhand error to lose the first set.
Djokovic hit a crosscourt backhand winner on the line for a 4-2 lead in the next set, clinching the victory with an ace.
Djokovic next will play Serbian compatriot Viktor Troicki, who beat Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-4, 6-4.
Andy Murray improved his record to 16-0 since the U.S. Open by beating Jeremy Chardy of France 6-2, 6-4.
The second-seeded Briton last lost to Rafael Nadal in the U.S. Open semifinals, winning 26 of 27 matches since mid-August. He jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first set, and in the second broke serve at 2-2 on a double-fault from Chardy and held on to win when the Frenchman sent backhand volley wide.
“He is playing at a higher level,” Chardy said. “Hes playing the right shots. Hes everywhere.”
Murray played solid tennis, making only nine unforced errors compared to 35 for Chardy. He will next play Andy Roddick.
“He didnt make a single unforced error during the first four games, or at least I dont remember,” Chardy said. “Tactically he made the right choices.”
David Ferrer of Spain, Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia and Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine also all won in straight sets.
The fourth-seeded Ferrer beat Nicolas Mahut of France 6-4, 6-4. Mahut double-faulted to drop serve at 1-1 before sending a backhand return long to lose the first set. The Spaniard clinched victory on an unforced error to set up a match with Dolgopolov, who downed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-3, 7-6 (6).
The 11th-seeded Tipsarevic defeated Alex Bogomolov Jr. of the United States 6-1, 6-0. Bogomolov took the opening game before losing 12 in a row. Tipsarevic will next play Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.
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