No. 3 Djokovic rallies for four-set win

Michael Berrer threw a minor scare into the 21-year-old Serb.

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Novak Djokovic was just getting his bearings when a powerful lefty took five straight games from him to even their match at a set apiece.

He wasn’t playing Rafael Nadal, however, and Djokovic regrouped to win his first-round match at Wimbledon.

No. 3-ranked Djokovic conceded only one point in the first three games of the third set and went on to 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory over Michael Berrer, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound German.

“It’s not easy, you’re playing on Centre Court, first day at Wimbledon,” Djokovic said. “There’s a lot of expectations as a big favorite in the match.”

He might regret not having thought more about that before he called Roger Federer “vulnerable” after the top-ranked Swiss star lost a lopsided French Open final to Nadal.

Djokovic is still finding his feet on grass. He made a final for the first time on lawn courts at the Queen’s warmup tournament, but lost to the muscular, left-handed Nadal in straight sets.

The 21-year-old Serb can’t meet No. 2-ranked Nadal until the final here. Before that, he would likely have to confront five-time champion Federer in the semis. And Federer, on a 60-match winning streak on grass, is unlikely to cut him any slack.

Djokovic upset Federer in the semifinals of the Australian Open before going on to win his first major and end a stretch of 11 Grand Slam finals won either by Federer or Nadal.

Federer, who has 12 major titles and been ranked No. 1 since February 2004, was first to sample Centre Court Monday as tradition dictates for the reigning men’s champion.

He even did the sporting thing and had a few words of advice for Djokovic after sweeping Dominik Hrbaty in 1 hour, 19 minutes.

“I spoke to Roger after he came off and he said the grass is just incredibly nice, the feeling, stepping as the first player on grass is a brilliant feeling,” Djokovic said.

One strike for Federer.

Djokovic didn’t dwell on that long before going back to thinking about his win over Berrer, who was ranked 91st and hadn’t put together back-to-back wins this season.

“Yeah, I’m pleased. I’m pleased to get through,” he said. “Always the first matches obviously are tricky ones. I had ups and downs throughout the match, but I managed to get in control towards the end. Especially in the fourth set, I was happy with my performance.”

He took a few deep breaths before settling down and jumping to a 3-0 lead in the third, the turning point.

“I was trying to get used to the conditions,” he said. “The grass is pretty slow. I was trying to get used to the returns. I was trying to be aggressive at the same time, but he was serving pretty good in the first two sets. Maybe I lost the focus towards the end of the second set, but I managed to come back.”

Djokovic had only played 22 matches on grass before Monday, winning 16 of them. Last year he got to play on Centre Court at Wimbledon, but had to retire in the semifinals against Nadal because of blisters on his feet.

He said it was nice to see some balls coming from Berrer’s left side, and thought it was good preparation for the remainder of the tournament — not necessarily for Nadal.

“I mean, I’m not thinking for finals or semifinals,” he said. “But it’s certainly good to win against the lefty, because always the left-handed players are different. They use this slice serve more. They have this, OK, little advantage I can say — there’s not many of them.”