Novak Djokovic of Serbia rallied past unseeded Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina 7-6(5), 6-2 on Friday in the second round of Italian Open.

The 22-times Grand Slam champion, who had a first-round bye, got off to a shaky start, dropping his serve in the opening game. He squandered a chance to break back immediately but managed to level the set at 3-3 then lead at 5-3. 

The resilient Argentinian forced a tiebreak as Djokovic won four consecutive points to seal the 75-minute set in which he delivered 21 unforced errors and looked physically unwell especially after 5-5.

Djokovic then mixed up his game with some delicate drops en route to a 5-3 lead and closed out the victory on serve.

"I haven't played too many claycourt matches this season but you can say it was the best one so far," said Djokovic who quit the Madrid Open last month.

"Still not at the desired level, still finding the shots and that groove on the court. It's always a little tricky playing somebody for the first time. He's a claycourt specialist and started better than I did.

"But I found my groove towards the end of the first set and the second set was good, especially the last three or four games," he added.

Earlier on Friday, women's singles top seed Swiatek cruised to her 12th successive victory in Rome with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over 2021 French Open finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in 67 minutes.

"The score doesn't really matter and it doesn't have any influence on my feeling on the court," reigning Roland Garros champion Swiatek said. "I'm just trying to play my best no matter what the score is."

(With input from Reuters)