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Rome - Novak Djokovic took his winning streak at the start of this year to 33 matches with an embarrassingly one-sided 6-0, 6-3 destruction of Pole Lukasz Kubot in the clay Rome Masters second round on Wednesday.
The Serbian 23-year-old is edging closer to American John McEnroe's 27-year-old record of a 42-match winning start to a season.
This tie was never in any doubt and Kubot never looked like improving on his two previous straight set defeats to Djokovic.
The world number two has won all six tournaments he has entered this year, including the Australian Open.
He even beat clay court king and world number one Rafael Nadal on the Spaniard's favourite surface and in his home country in the Madrid Masters final last week.
And he proved that he is not about to let up with a ruthless display against an opponent ranked 141 in the world.
Kubot came through qualifying to reach this stage of the competition and the gulf in class between the pair was evident from the off.
Djokovic raced through the first set taking all three of his break-point opportunities, making half the number of errors and four times as many winners.
On the final point he pounced on a net-cord to send a forehand winner down the line.
Serve and volley specialist Kubot seemed to gather his strength and put up much more of a fight in the second set.
In the second game he set up a game point with a big serve and backhand volley.
But he netted a backhand and then a lucky net-cord gave Djokovic break point, which he secured with an inside out forehand.
Kubot had a chance again in the fourth game but he doubled faulted on game point.
However, a winning smash gave him another opportunity which he took with a delicate drop shot that brought up the biggest cheer of the match and an appreciative smile from the outclassed Kubot.
He was again on the attack in his next service game, and he secured that at the third attempt with a forehand volley winner after the previous two saw him first passed at the net and then go long with a backhand.
But in the next game Djokovic ran through his full repertoire, with a backhand drop shot from the baseline bringing Kubot to the net where the Serbian nonchalantly passed him down the line.
Kubot held serve once more but Djokovic finished off the match when Kubot blazed a forehand into the tramlines after just one hour seven minutes on court.
