Fernando Verdasco

MELBOURNE - Serbia's Novak Djokovic has got off to a successful start to his Australian Open title defence with a routine 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 victory over Spaniard Fernando Verdasco on Tuesday.

In an excellent display, Djokovic - who has six Australian Open titles - won after two hours and 23 minutes of play and is now 10-4 head-to-head against Verdasco.

AP photo

MELBOURNE - Serbia's Novak Djokovic will begin his Australian Open title defence against Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.

If he wins, Djokovic - a six-time champion in Melbourne - will face the winner of the match between Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin and a qualifier.

AP photo

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DOHA - Serbia's Novak Djokovic will be defending his Doha title in the final of the ATP tennis tournament after saving five match points to knock out Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 in the semi-final on Friday.

In the final, he will face the winner of the match between Briton Andy Murray and Czech Tomas Berdych.

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ST. PETERSBURG - Serbia's Viktor Troicki has got off to a successful start at the St. Petersburg Open tennis tournament by beating Gastao Elias of Portugal 6-1, 6-2 in the opening round on Wednesday.

He will next face compatriot Dusan Lajovic, who beat Spaniard Fernando Verdasco on Tuesday.

The prize money in St. Petersburg is 923,550 dollars.

Tanjug file photo

ST. PETERSBURG - Serbia's Dusan Lajovic has got off to a successful start at the St. Petersburg Open tennis tournament by beating Fernando Verdasco of Spain 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the opening round late Tuesday.

Lajovic, who won after 110 minutes of play, is now 2-1 head-to-head against the Spaniard.

The world number one tennis player Novak Djokovic cruised past Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-2, 6-2 to reach quarter-finals of the Qatar Open in Doha Wednesday.

Djokovic has an 8-4 lead in their head-to-head score. After the match, the Serbian tennis player wished a happy Christmas Eve, celebrated by Serbian Orthodox Christians according to the Julian calendar.

Grigor Dimitrov proceeded to the second round of the 2015 US Open on Monday, defeating the Australian qualifier Matthew Ebden in three sets.

The 17th seed Bulgarian came through by a comfortable 6-4 6-2 6-4 win over Ebden in New York.

MONTE CARLO - Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic and Poland's Marcin Matkowski secured their spot in the quarterfinals of the doubles event at the ATP Masters tournament in Monte Carlo, after defeating Spaniards Tommy Robredo and Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in the second round Thursday.

Fernando Verdasco upset second seed Rafael Nadal 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 Sunday in a third-round matchup of Spaniards to advance at the ATP and WTA Miami Open.
      
Nadal, a four-time Miami runner-up, leaves the Masters Series hardcourt event without a title again this year after his 11th appearance.
      

Spain's Tomi Robredo has ousted the Bulgarian tennis star Grigor Dimitrov from the Masters Series tournament in Indian Wells, US.

Robredo beat Dimitrov 4:6, 6:1, 5:7. He won the first set after the two had tied 4:4, and in the second it took him much to score a single game.

A series of mistakes clearly determined the outcome for Dimitrov in the third set.