3 things that stood out in Novak Djokovic's win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in Davis Cup 2023

Novak Djokovic beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 6-4 in a Davis Cup match in Valencia to help Serbia defeat Spain in the Group C tie on Friday, September 16. Serbia thus qualified for the quarterfinal and will face the Czech Republic on Saturday to determine the group winner.

Djokovic made a winning return to action following his title triumph at the US Open last week. In a match that lasted for around two hours, the Serbian proved to be too strong for the Spaniard.

On that note, here are three things that stood out in Djokovic's win over Davidovich:

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#1 Davidovich Fokina tried to overpower Djokovic in the first set

Davidovich Fokina put a lot of power behind his groundstrokes in the first set to put some pressure on Djokovic. However, he failed to hit through the Serb on most of the occasions owing to the great defensive skills of the latter.

The Spaniard hit the ball out of the court on a few occasions in his attempt to overpress. It helped Djokovic’s cause in the end, as the Serb remained his clinical self.

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#2 Djokovic kept playing to his strength

Djokovic engaged Davidovich Fokina in a number of crosscourt backhand exchanges in the first set and then pulled the trigger down the line a few times. The Serb thus played to his strength, thereby putting the Spaniard under pressure.

Davidovich Fokina also played drop shots on a few occasions, but Djokovic proved equal to the task by getting to the ball on time and then using his own crosscourt backhand slices. The 36-year-old broke Davidovich Fokina in the eighth game of the first set before winning it to draw first blood.

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#3 Davidovich Fokina showed more discipline in the second set, but Djokovic held firm

Davidovich Fokina was more disciplined with his shots in the second set, thereby minimizing the errors and forcing Djokovic to commit some. He broke the 24-time Grand Slam champion once to race to a 4-1 lead in the set and looked like he could force a decider.

However, Djokovic then started going around his backhand more often as the second set progressed. He hit quite a few powerful inside-out and inside-in forehands to put pressure on Davidovich Fokina and thereby came back into the match. He won five consecutive games to win the set and seal the match.