  Serbia's Novak Djokovic returns a ball to Czech Republic's Jan Hernych during their round of sixteen match at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors tennis tournament in Basel, Switzerland, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Keystone, Georgios Kefalas) |
BASEL, Switzerland - Novak Djokovic won 6-0, 6-0 for the first time at an elite event, blanking Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic at the Swiss Indoors on Thursday.
The third-ranked Serb won the second-round match in 53 minutes.
"To win against somebody (with a) double bagel, an opponent has to play really, really bad," Djokovic said. "He didn't put a lot of effort in."
Djokovic has had a pair of 6-1, 6-0 wins in ATP Tour semifinals the past two seasons. He routed Andy Murray to reach the Miami Masters final in March 2007, and dispatched David Nalbandian in 48 minutes on grass at Queen's Club in London last year.
Hernych, a 30-year-old player ranked 59th, had three break points in the first set. Djokovic saved them all and won all eight points on Hernych's second serve in the opening set.
"It's funny at the end with the crowd wanting him to win a game. It's easy to understand that," said Djokovic, who converted his first match point. "We're professionals and he's my rival on the court."
Djokovic reached his 18th quarterfinal of the year. His one failure to reach the last eight since January was a third-round exit at the French Open.
On Friday, Djokovic will play sixth-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, who defeated Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 7-5, 2-6, 6-1.
In other second-round matches, fourth-seeded Marin Cilic and Richard Gasquet saved match points before winning three-setters. Cilic needed more than three hours to oust Serbia's Viktor Troicki 7-6 (7), 6-7 (8), 7-6 (6). The Croat next plays fifth-seeded Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.
Gasquet's 4-6, 7-6 (9), 6-2 win over John Isner swung on a second-set tiebreaker. The Frenchman saved the second of Isner's two match points with one of his six aces to answer 22 from the six-foot-nine American.
Gasquet earned a quarter-final with Marco Chiudinelli, who edged Michael Lammer 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in an all-Swiss match. Evgeny Korolev of Russia beat Jeremy Chardy of France 6-4, 7-6 (1) and will play top-seeded Roger Federer on Friday.
