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Djokovic survives Doha scare
- Updated: January 3, 2017
Novak Djokovic battled from 5-1 down against world No 63 Jan-Lennard Struff to claim his first victory of the season at the Qatar Open on Monday.
The world No 2 lost his opening two service games and struggled with the German’s big serves in the early exchanges.
But the Serb rallied in determined fashion to eventually take the first-round match 7-6 (7-1) 6-3.
“It wasn’t a great start, I was 1-5 down, it didn’t look very good,” Djokovic said after winning in just under 90 minutes.
He attributed his slow start to early-season rustiness rather than any long-term concerns over his form, following a relatively poor second half of the season in 2016.
“I guess I had to get more time to get the engine started. It’s the first match of the year, you never …
