World No.1 Novak Djokovic dealt Bernard Tomic a claycourt reality check with a straight-sets dismissal of the Australian teenager at the Rome Masters.
After enjoying a first-round bye, Djokovic opened his title defence with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Tomic on Tuesday night.
Tomic will be seeded at a grand slam for the first time at the French Open starting on Sunday week, but was no match for the top-seeded Serb.
Coming off a quarter-final loss to fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic on the blue clay at last week’s Madrid Open, Djokovic went ahead with two early breaks and faced minimal resistance from the 19-year-old Tomic.
“It was a good match for me to start with,” said Djokovic.
“(Tomic) has a lot of talent and he changes things up well, so you don’t know what to expect – that’s what makes him dangerous.”
With the French Open less than two weeks away, Djokovic is looking to rediscover the form from his 43-match winning streak a year ago.
Winning at Roland Garros is a top priority for him after taking the three other majors last year.
While never really pushed to play his best, Djokovic showed off his expert shot-making at times.
During the game when he broke to go up 4-2 in the second, Djokovic was on a full run and slid into the splits to lift a perfectly placed lob that Tomic couldn’t handle, hitting into the net.
Djokovic had half as many unforced errors as Tomic – 15 to 30 – and led 20-15 in winners.
Earlier, fourth-ranked Andy Murray battled past Argentine David Nalbandian 6-1 4-6 7-5 in a strong return after taking last week off because of a bad back.
Fifth-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga cruised past Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-3 6-2 and sixth-seeded David Ferrer beat fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-3 7-6 (7-3).
Another Spaniard, Juan Carlos Ferrero, upset 13th seed Gael Monfils 7-5 6-3 for his first back-to-back wins in six months, while 10th seed Juan Martin del Potro downed Michael Llodra 7-5 3-6 6-4.
In women’s action, Serena Williams beat 46th-ranked Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan 6-2 6-3 for her 14th consecutive victory, following titles in Charleston, South Carolina and Madrid – plus two wins in Fed Cup.
In other women’s matches, Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova overcame eight double-faults to beat Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5 6-4.
Defending champion Maria Sharapova also advanced to the third round after downing American Christina McHale 7-5 7-5 and Venus Williams eliminated Romanian Simona Halep 6-3 6-4.