JOIN USDjokovic kicks off with a bang
An ATP rule designed to entice top players to take part in top events states that, as world number one, Djokovic is entitled to a $2 million bonus if he plays in all eight Masters tournaments. The bonus drops to $1.6 million if he misses one -- and to nothing if he misses two.
Having skipped the Shanghai Masters through injury, the Serbian suffered a recurrence of a shoulder problem in his semifinal defeat in Basel against Japan's Kei Nishikori last week.
Djokovic, who said he spent his time between Basel and Paris recovering from the injury, dismissed talk that he had turned up in Paris just to cash in the cheque.
“It was really somehow funny for me to see how people are coming up with that story...I even heard that I would get on the court and play a game just to get this money. This is ridiculous,” he told a news conference.
Swiss Roger Federer, seeded three, barely broke sweat in a 6-2, 6-3 dismissal of French wild card Adrian Mannarino to reach the third round where he will face local favourite Richard Gasquet on Thursday.
Second seed Andy Murray started his campaign in ruthless fashion, beating France's Jeremy Chardy 6-2, 6-4 to reach the third round.
Serbian Janko Tipsarevic kept alive his slim hopes of making it to the ATP World Tour finals when the 11th seed thrashed American Alex Bogomolov Jr 6-1, 6-0.
Bhupathi-Paes exit
India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes were knocked out of the doubles competition after losing to Santiago Gonzalez and Christopher Kas 6-3, 1-6, 8-10 in the second round.
Fourth-seeded Bhupathi-Paes, who got a first round bye, started well in the match but lost points in key moments to suffer an early exit.
Agencies