Six-time Miami Open champion Novak Djokovic made his long-awaited return to the tournament on Friday, easily defeating Linky Hijikata 6-0, 7-6 (1) to reach the third round.
Marking Djokovic’s first match at the Miami event since 2019, his 410th ATP Masters 1000 level victory, tied with Rafael Nadal for most of the time.
“I was really good. From the start, on a very high level, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do tactically,” No. 4 seed Djokovic said in an interview on his court. “It’s obviously just my first match, but the way I felt on the court and the way I played really encouraged me.”
It was all one-way traffic in the opening set as Djokovic got off to a perfect start by showing off excellent shotmaking from the baseline and a deadly service game.
He only took 27 minutes to put together the opening set.
However, Hijikata refused to retreat and his confidence grew in the second set, closely contested, where neither player was able to manage the break. However, Djokovic took over with a tiebreaker and scored the final six points.
This year, 2023 Miami champion No. 7 seed Danil Medvedev, who arrived newly to the Indian Wells’ semi-finals, crashed in his opening match, falling 6-2, 6-3 to Spain’s Jam Munar.
Former Miami open finalists Casper Rood and Grigor Dimitrov both advanced, with Australian Nick Kyrgios earning their first win since October 2022 this week, falling 6-0 to Karen Khachanov to 7-6 (3).
No. 2 seed Carlos Alcaraz begins an evening session with Belgian David Goffin.
Reuters contributed to this report.