Novak Djokovic advances in his return to tournament play

Novak Djokovic returned to the court for the first time in more than a month on Tuesday and looked fresh while dispatching Fabio Fognini in the second round of the Shanghai Masters in China.

The No. 1-ranked Djokovic posted a 6-3, 6-3 victory and said afterward that he is in a much better place both physically and mentally. The Serbian, who had not played a tournament match since his loss to Stan Wawrinka in the U.S. Open finals, has been battling an elbow injury and some undisclosed emotional issues.

"The last three months were up and down a little bit with oscillations, but generally I didn't find that kind of satisfaction on the court," Djokovic said. "I do really feel like I'm already getting better because I changed my mindset. ... I think I'm a different person than I was maybe three months ago, maybe six months ago."

Djokovic certainly didn't play flawless while beating Fognini of Italy. He committed 18 unforced errors and double-faulted four times while hitting just 13 winners.

Among other second-round matches featuring top-10 seeds, sixth-seeded Frenchman Gael Monfils recorded a 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory over South Africa's Kevin Anderson, Germany's 19-year-old Alexander Zverev posted a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 upset of eighth-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic, and ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France beat Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 7-6 (6).