UPDATE 3-Tennis-Djokovic smashes racket in win over Montanes

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By Paul Virgo

ROME, April 28 (Reuters) - Novak Djokovic began his Rome Masters title defence by losing his cool and smashing a racket during a 7-6 6-0 win over Spain's Albert Montanes on Tuesday.

With rain disrupting play on numerous occasions throughout the day, Djokovic was kept waiting until 2230 local time before he could even start his second round match. When he got on court, he struggled to get the measure of an enterprising opponent on the heavy clay surface.

Having dropped serve twice in the first set, the Serb hurled his racket to the ground and snapped it into two after he threw away a point with an error in the tiebreak, which he went on to win 7-5.

Once he had taken out his frustration on his racket the world number three, who had a bye into round two, regained his composure to dominate the rest of the match and go through to the third round.