2 things that stood out in Novak Djokovic's 1R win over Alexandre Muller at the US Open

Second seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia thrashed Alexandre Muller of France 6-0, 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the US Open in New York on Monday, August 28. The match lasted for a little more than two hours, as the 23-time Grand Slam champion cruised to victory.

Djokovic looked in really good touch in the match and thereby sent a warning to his upcoming opponents in the tournament.

On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in the match:

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#1. Djokovic ruled with his crosscourt forehand in the 1st set

Djokovic was in imperious form in the first set and did not allow Muller any breathing space. The Serb broke his opponent thrice to serve him a bagel and the Frenchman never really recovered from the blow.

Djokovic dominated with his crosscourt forehand in the set, often pushing his opponent to the corner of the court with it and then hitting a winner to the open court. At times, he served with a wide angle to the right of the Frenchman and then finished the point with a volley. He also hit a few down-the-line forehand winners from his deuce court and finished the set with an ace.

Muller virtually had no chance of offering any resistance to the 36-year-old Serb and it was not until the ninth game of the match that he managed to win his first game.

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#2. Djokovic played forehand approaches often

Throughout the match, Djokovic kept playing approaches off his forehand before venturing forward to hit volley winners. The Serb hit 32 winners in the match, with quite a few of them coming through volleys. Muller, meanwhile, was able to hit only 11 winners in the match.

The Frenchman, however, troubled his opponent with his own crosscourt forehand to some extent in the second and third sets. He broke Djokovic once to reduce the deficit to 2-4 in the second set, but Djokovic broke back in the subsequent game before serving the set out.

The Serb then won the last three games of the third set to finish the match off in style. He won 85% of the points on his first serve in the match, while Muller could manage only 59% on his. Moreover, the Frenchman was able to win only 32% of the points on his second serve. He faced 13 break point opportunities in the match and was able to save only five of them.