On the other hand, defending champion Roger Federer’s draw seems more competitive with Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Janko Tipsarevic playing.
Many are hoping for a Djokovic-Federer showdown in the final but the 25-year-old says he’s not looking past his opening round with Viktor Troicki.
“I haven’t looked at the draw at all,” said Djokovic. “They just told me I’m playing Viktor and I have no intention of looking how far I can go because this tournament is very strong and the field shows it.
“You have six top-10 players in this tournament and it’s only a 32 draw. You have to play every day from Tuesday on in order to win the tournament so I don’t look that far.”
Meanwhile, in yesterday’s matches, Del Potro survived a possible first-round upset as he beat Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).
In another match, Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko crushed Tipsaveric 6-0, 7-5 and advanced to the second round while Berdych progressed in the Championship with an easy 6-1, 6-3 win over American Rajeev Ram.
Elsewhere, Australia’s Bernard Tomic was forced to retire in the first set of his opening-round match against Romania’s Victor Hanescu.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 27th, 2013.
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I think federer will play djokovic in final. Federer will win the Final.