Summary Djokovic pulled his championship tennis back together after beating Gilles Simon.
CINCINNATI (AFP) - Novak Djokovic pulled his championship tennis back together after last week s early exit, beating Gilles Simon 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to reach the third round of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters here Tuesday.
The world number one was ambushed at the same stage in Toronto a week ago by eventual champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
But Djokovic made sure he did not commit the same error twice as he began a bid to win the only Masters 1000 title missing from his resume. But he was tested by his French opponent, who took Tuesday s contest into a final set.
"He s not going to give you too many unforced errors and free points, so I knew that," Djokovic said. "But I managed to get a win in the end, and that s what matters."
Djokovic went down a service break in the opening set but got it back and added another to take the early lead. In the second set, he went up a break for 2-1 but could not stay the course. A break for 4-3 in the third kept him on the road to recovery.
He ended on his second match point after more than two hours.
Four-time Cincinnati finalist Djokovic improved his record over France s Simon to 8-1. He is playing the pre-US Open Masters tournament for the tenth time.
In the only other second-round match played, Australian Open winner Stan Wawrinka was broken while serving for victory but pulled out a win over German Benjamin Becker 6-3, 7-6 (7/5).
Toronto winner Tsonga crashed back down to earth in his opening match, losing 6-1, 6-4 to Russian Mikhail Youzhny.
The 29-year-old 12th seed found himself back on court 48 hours after beating Roger Federer to win the title in Toronto, the second at the Masters 1000 level of his career.
- Failed to find inspiration -
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But he failed to find the inspiration he had in Toronto -- where he also beat Djokovic and Andy Murray -- with canny veteran Youzhny taking full advantage of the physical state of last week s champion.
"It s never easy, you have to get used to the conditions really quick," said Tsonga.
"I was not able to hit yesterday because the rainstorm.
"But that s not the main thing. I just give everything on court, but I didn t have enough today to compete at the good level.
"I gave everything last week. Before the match I believed I was able to play at a good level, but on the court I realised it s gonna be impossible. And it was.
"I gave my best and it was tough."
Latvian Ernests Gulbis needed a pair of tiebreakers to advance over Ivan Dodig 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/4).
Croatian 14th seed Marin Cilic advanced into the second round over Toronto semi-finalist Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-4 while British qualifier James Ward surprised Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
Canadian Vasek Pospisil rallied to put out Czech Radek Stepanek 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (7/4) as wild card Robby Ginepri beat Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-3, 5-7, 7-5.
In women s play, fifth seed Maria Sharapova overcame American Madison Keys 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, with the Russian changing clothes at the end of the second set and starting the third refreshed.
"I guess maybe that s just what dry clothes does to you - they get you a bit calmer. It was obviously time to change. It s quite humid here."
Czech 16th seed Lucie Safarova knocked out Montreal finalist Venus Williams, 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 6-4.
