Djokovic cruises past Berankis

World number one Novak Djokovic eased into the second round of the US Open with an efficient 6-1 6-2 6-2 victory over Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis last night.

The Serbian, last year’s beaten finalist, was not at his absolute best - Berankis created eight break-point opportunities – but nevertheless had far too much for his 23-year-old opponent, seeing him off in an hour and 22 minutes.

Berankis gave the crowd hope they may see a contest by producing a cross-court pass to take the first point of the match, but Djokovic asserted his authority to hold, then broke immediately and ominously.

Berankis was on the brink in his next service game too, but saved a break point via a Hawkeye challenge on a backhand down the line and held to get on the board.

Djokovic broke again in game six though and, despite facing a couple of break points himself, he served out the set.

And there was more of the same in the second set as Berankis simply could not deal with the depth and power of the Djokovic groundstrokes.

Djokovic powered through the set and when he served out to love with another huge forehand, the match was less than 50 minutes old.

Berankis was up against it from the off in the third as he was broken in game one, then threw away a chance on the Djokovic serve by powering a forehand return long.

When the Lithuanian dumped an overhead into the net to give the world number one a 4-0 lead it was symptomatic of his inability to take the chances that came his way, although he was able to finish with a flourish by finally breaking in game six.

Djokovic powered on though and took the next two games to seal a second-round match-up with Benjamin Becker.