Novak Djokovic ended his Tennis Masters Cup jinx yesterday, overcoming a rash of errors to beat Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro 7-5, 6-3 in the season-ending tournament's opening round-robin match in Shanghai.

Novak Djokovic chases the ball during his group match against Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina at the 2008 Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai yesterday. The Serb won the tournament opener 7-5, 6-3.

Russia's Nikolay Davydenko used his devastating ground game to rally past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 6-7 (6), 6-4, 7-6 (0) in the other Gold Group match at the Qizhong Tennis Center in suburban Minhang District.

Djokovic failed to win a set last year in three matches, citing exhaustion from a heavy schedule in his rise to No. 3 in the world.

The Serb also lost in the round of 16 in his past two tournaments and said on Saturday that he was having trouble finding his rhythm.

"I was a bit intimidated by the fact of not winning a single match last year, that's for sure," Djokovic said. "But this year is different. I feel more confident, stronger player on the court, more mature."

Djokovic started strongly, breaking del Potro for a 3-1 lead. Then his serve and strategy let him down when serving for the first set at 5-3. He double-faulted to give del Potro breakpoint, then weakly dumped a backhand drop-shot attempt into the net to put the match back on serve.

A tiebreaker loomed until del Potro netted a forehand while serving at 5-6, 30-30.

The Argentine, at 20 the youngest player here, had Djokovic lunging from side to side on the next point only to see the Serb smack a forehand crosscourt winner to take the set.

Del Potro, who has jumped to eighth in the rankings from No. 65 on July 7, thanks largely to a 23-match winning streak, angrily spiked his racket but recovered to break Djokovic for a 2-1 edge in the second set.

Djokovic broke back in the next game. After del Potro held to make it 3-3, Djokovic ran off the last three games, then applauded the crowd for its support.

"I have the best fans here in China," he said, adding "Thank you" in Chinese to a huge roar.

Tsonga, who lost the Australian Open final to Djokovic in January and later sat out three months with a knee injury, got off to a shaky start, falling behind 0-40 in his first service game before coming back to hold.

Those turned out to be the only breakpoints in the first set.

Tsonga, a newcomer at the Masters Cup like del Potro, quickly won over the fans with his go-for-broke style.

(Agencies via Shanghai Daily November 10, 2008)