pleased with a second-round defeat of Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
Djokovic, who
lives a few hundred metres from Court Central at the seaside Country
Club, was happy to bring home the straight-set win in less than 90
minutes.
"For a first match on clay, it was pretty good," said the winner of back-to-back hardcourt Masters 1000 titles in the US.
"I'm happy to have started so strong.
"I
can just take positives from today. Maybe there were a few games where I
did drop a little bit with intensity and concentration.
"But overall was a high quality performance and I'm happy for that.
"The
fact that I'm playing at home (helps). I practice in this club over the
course of 12 months, hard courts, clay courts, I know people who are
doing the courts, I'm friends with them.
"It really is a different and very special feeling. So I'm trying to enjoy it and see how far I can go.
Djokovic is playing for the
142nd week on the ATP number one ranking, putting him one week ahead of
Rafael Nadal on the top honour.
Roger Federer, Monte Carlo second seed, leads that statistical category with the all-time best of 302 weeks in the top spot.
Djokovic
is also bidding to become the first player to win the opening three ATP
Masters 1000 tournaments of the season after claiming Indian Wells and
Miami honours.
- Five Frenchmen advance -Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon, Jeremy Chardy and Lucas Pouille moved into the second round as a pair of compatriots lined up challenges against leading seeds.
Number
11 Tsonga beat Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4, 6-4 while number 14
Monfils had to overcome three breaks in the last four games of his
contest before securing safe passage into the second round with a 4-6,
6-3, 6-4 defeat of Russian Andrey Kuznetsov.
Simon, seeded tenth, defeated Monaco's Benjamin Balleret 6-4, 6-2.
The hardest work on the clay
looks to be awaiting an unheralded French pair at the event which kick
starts the six-week run to Roland Garros.
Chardy
defeated Diego Schwartzman 7-5, 6-2 to book a spot opposite Federer as
the Swiss begins the quest for a first career trophy at the venue where
he finished runner-up a year ago to Stan Wawrinka.
Pouille,
ranked 108, will also have his work cut out as he plays eight-time
champion Nadal. The French wild card beat Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-4.
Nadal
is desperate to maintain his title as king of clay and start to turn
around what for the Spaniard has been a horror showing so far in 2015.
Nadal
exited early at both of the March hardcourt events in the US and has
spent a fortnight on clay in his native Mallorca trying to re-discover
his feel for his preferred surface.
The
28-year-old won the last of his Monte Carlo titles in 2012 and has his
hopes again set on a successful road to Paris and the French Open in six
weeks.
- Montfils battles through -
Monfils,
who has never been past the second round at the tournament since first
playing here a decade ago, had to battle through a tough opening
encounter with Kuznetsov, whom he beat in Marseille two months ago.
"There
were ups and downs, I was not monstrously confident," said Monfils,
injured last month in the US. "I had trouble finding the right timing
and moving on the surface.
"I've never had much success here in Monte Carlo, I'm very pleased that I was able to get through this match.
"I
have mixed feelings - there were good parts in the game, but also bad
ones. But I was able to come back. Once I was a bit more confident, I
was able to move better, too."
Ninth seed Grigor Dimitrov held off
Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, saving 15 of 17 break points; Serb
Viktor Troicki defeated Casablanca champion Martin Klizan 7-6 (7/5),
5-7, 6-2.
France's Adrian
Mannarino fell to Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-0 as another Spaniard Tommy
Robredo, seeded 16th, beat Italy's Andreas Seppi 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.
Source:AFP
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