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Djokovic, who is not vaccinated against
COVID-19, was unable to play at Indian Wells and Miami last
month as he failed to obtain a waiver to enter the United
States.
He spent the time training on clay ahead of the French Open,
where he will target a 23rd Grand Slam, but the Serbian's 7-6(5)
6-2 win over Russian qualifier Gakhov on Tuesday showed he needs
more time to get into a rhythm.
"Throughout my career I needed one, two weeks of tournaments to
really start to play the way I want to. It's the case again this
year, though I trained for three weeks and felt good playing
practice points," Djokovic told reporters.
"But it's different when you play a match, especially today
(Tuesday) was quite windy on the court, so not easy to find the
rhythm, to have the ball right, the ball toss and playing a
lefty, playing someone that has not much to lose.
"All these things play a factor in the way you feel on the
court. I'm really glad I overcome the first step, because I hope
things will be better and easier from this point."
The Australian Open champion said the level of his tennis was
"not very high" at the moment and he was not sure when it would
pick up.
"The good feelings might come as soon as the next match or
later," added Djokovic, who plays Lorenzo Musetti or Luca Nardi
in the third round.
"I don't know. We'll keep working on practice courts and see
what happens."
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter
Rutherford)
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