Djokovic ‘suffered’ during Shanghai win over Cilic

Novak Djokovic claims that during the second round of the Shanghai Masters, Marin Cilic, his compatriot, “suffered a lot”

The 38-year-old Serb won 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 over his 37-year-old opponent in his first one hour and 54 minute first tournament since the US Open and his first non-grand Slam contest since May.

The oldest ATP Masters 1000 main draw match between Djokovic and Cilic was between them when the pair were 75 years and 139 days apart.

As both players served before Djokovic took the tie-break, little could separate the pair in the first set.

In the third game of the second set, Cilic’s serve was broken, and world number five Djokovic was able to hold his own to advance to the third round.

Djokovic said, “I did enjoy it, but I also suffered a lot on the court.”

“It was a very close match,” he said. He probably gave me more breathing space during the first set than he did for the first set.

I believe I managed to avoid trouble by doing good serving, which is obviously cheering me up.

In the third round, Djokovic will face German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann, who is already a big-time champion.

Ben Shelton, the sixth seeded, looked rusty as he lost to Belgium’s David Goffin, 6-2, 6-4.

The 22-year-old American has been recovering from a shoulder injury from the US Open and lost his serve in the third and seventh games.

The world number 83 ended the match with a second-half penalty for Shelton’s error in the ninth game, which gave Goffin the lead.

Goffin will face 31-seed Gabriel Diallo in a third-round match against Canada’s Gabriel Diallo.