Djokovic claims first win of season in 51 minutes

Novak Djokovic took just 51 minutes to win his first game of 2016, easily beating Dustin Brown 6-2, 6-2 in the opening game of the Qatar Open on Monday.

The world number one was rarely troubled by the German and barely raised a sweat in cruising into the second round with an ominous display for his rivals looking for any early-season weaknesses from Djokovic after his dominant 2015.

Djokovic said before the tournament started that he is in Doha to win and not merely play some warm-up matches before the defence of his Australian Open crown later this month.

And he certainly served notice of that, racing to a 5-0 lead in the first set in just 16 minutes. Brown though rallied, holding his serve for the first time in the sixth game and then breaking the Serb’s serve to make it 5-2.

The world number 118 then had two points to claim a third successive game but double-faulted twice, allowing Djokovic to claim the first set in just 25 minutes. The second set followed a similar pattern as Djokovic, 28, swatted aside any potential resistance from Brown — who famously beat Rafael Nadal in the second round at Wimbledon last year — by breaking serve in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead.

That was pretty much the end of Brown, a qualifier for the tournament, and the contest. The 31-year-old rarely threatened the Serb’s serve and it ended in sorry fashion as Brown delivered his fourth double fault of the night to end the match. It was the first ever meeting between the pair. Djokovic, making his second appearance in Qatar, was watched on by coach Boris Becker, the first winner of the Qatar Open back in 1993. Last year in Doha, Djokovic suffered a rare defeat, crashing out in the third round to Ivo Karlovic.