Novak Djokovic noted the ‘brutal conditions’ at the Shanghai Masters after coming from behind to beat Yannick Hanfmann in three sets. The veteran Serb was visibly struggling in the heat and even threw up during a change of ends in the second set. It looked as though he was going to slip to a surprise defeat, but a battling comeback saw him secure a 4-6 7-6 6-3 triumph.

Hanfmann made a flying start to the contest, storming ahead in the first set as Djokovic struggled to find his rhythm. However, the latter’s quality began to show as the match progressed and he recovered from his poorly moment to claim a hard-fought victory. Afterwards, he admitted the conditions in Shanghai were ‘brutal’ while also crediting his opponent’s display.

“I’ve been saying it before, it’s the same for every player that steps out on the court, but it’s brutal,” said Djokovic. “It’s brutal when you have over 80 per cent humidity day after day for the guys.

“Particularly when they are playing during the day with heat, with sun, it’s even more brutal. It is what it is, you just have to deal with it. For me, biologically a bit more challenging to deal with it.

“But look, I had to really weather the storm today. Yannick played an incredible match from the beginning. One let’s say mediocre game from my side in the first set at 1-1 was enough for him to break the serve and win a set.”

Djokovic admitted that he found it hard to deal with Hanfmann’s service games, with the German putting his impressive power to good use.

“It was so hard to read his serve, he was serving so accurately and high percentage, smashing every ball that he had basically on his racket,” added the Serb.

“Just tough to play someone like that. Crowd really got me up, towards the end of the second set I started to feel like I could stay in the rally, read his serve, make him play an extra shot.