Unstoppable Novak Djokovic won his 19th straight match this season as he crushed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-0, 6-1 on Friday to make a dominant start at the $9 million Miami WTA and ATP Masters. In a match played after some of tennis' top players personally collected donations form the crowd at Crandon Park in aid of disaster-stricken Japan, Djokovic produced another emphatic victory.
It was his third triumph by the same score in his last seven matches. It took a mere 48 minutes, with the second-seeded Serb, winner of the Indian Wells Masters crown last weekend, breaking serve five times. "I'm having the best couple of months of my career," said Djokovic, winner of three events this season. "I'm playing really well and I showed it again."
By contrast, it was a day of utter frustration for Andy Murray as the Scot crashed out to unheralded American Alex Bogomolov 6-1, 7-5. Murray's loss in 95 minutes to the qualifier ranked 118th was the second straight unexpected defeat for the fifth seed, who frankly admits that he is struggling with his game and doesn't have an immediate answer. "A lot of players would get frustrated if they were playing the way that I have the last two weeks," said Murray, who lost to Djokovic in the Australian Open final in January.