Djokovic hits $1.6 mn bonus at Paris Masters

Novak Djokovic pocketed a $1.6-million bonus just for turning up on court on Wednesday before making light of recent shoulder pains to beat Croatian Ivan Dodig 6-4, 6-3 in the second round of the Paris Masters. 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 the plays in all eight Masters tournaments. [caption id=“attachment_127695” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The bonus drops to $1.6 million if he misses one - and to nothing if he misses two. Reuters”]  [/caption] 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. At Bercy, Djokovic, who has won three grand slams and five Masters title this year, struggled at times against world number 39 Dodig, but served strongly throughout and took his chances when it mattered to book his place in the third round. A break in the 10th game was enough for him to take the lead and another in the sixth game of the second helped him wrap it up. Earlier, second seed Andy Murray started his campaign in ruthless fashion with the Briton easing past France’s Jeremy Chardy 6-2, 6-4 to reach the third round. World number three Murray, who withdrew from the Basel tournament because of injury, had little difficulty with Chardy after racing into a 4-0 lead in the opening set. He then broke in the fifth game of the second set to secure a 17th consecutive win and set up a meeting with 13th seed Andy Roddick in the next round. Murray completed a stunning hat-trick of titles in as many weeks on the Asian swing of the ATP tour after winning the Shanghai Masters on October 16. He also won in Bangkok and Tokyo. Serbian Janko Tipsarevic kept his slim hopes of making it to the ATP World Tour finals alive when the 11th seed thrashed American Alex Bogomolov Jr 6-1, 6-0 to reach the third round. Tipsarevic, who needs to win the title if he is to grab one of the three remaining spots for the November 20-27 event at the O2 in London, will next face Czech Tomas Berdych. The fifth-seeded Berdych will qualify if he reaches the quarterfinals at Bercy or if American Mardy Fish, seeded seven, loses to German Florian Mayer later on Wednesday. Fourth seed David Ferrer, who has already qualified for the World Tour finals, was barely bothered in a 6-4, 6-4 win over French qualifier Nicolas Mahut. Reuters