This content was published 3 years ago. It may refer to a past edition of the Internazionali d’Italia.

Novak Djokovic dropped just five games as he eased to a straight sets victory over Salvatore Caruso in his opening round match at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

The world No.1 looked comfortable on the clay at the Foro Italico, putting in a solid performance to see off the wildcard in one hour 24 minutes. He needed one break in the opening set and two in the second – one of which was a mammoth 11-minute affair – to round out victory and set up a third round clash against either Italian qualifier Marco Cecchinato or countryman Filip Krajinovic.

It was a good performance from Caruso who had recorded his first Masters-1000 victory in the opening round against qualifier Tennis Sandgren and is playing at Rome on a career-high ranking at No.87. The Italian hit 13 winners to Djokovic’s 12 and impressed the Serb several times, particularly off his backhand side.

“It was a very good test for me. I’m very pleased with the way I handled myself in important moments. I was in control of the match, served well when I needed to to come up with a big serve and moved well. Constructed the points as the clay courts demand, because it’s obviously completely different surface in terms of building the point tactically. Everything went well. I’m very pleased,” said Djokovic.