Australian Open: Novak Djokovic getting serious

MELBOURNE, January 19

Novak Djokovic resumed business as usual to move a step closer to an 11th Australian Open title with a host of other contenders also making light work of third-round matches today.

Jannik Sinner, Coco Gauff and Stefanos Tsitsipas were equally efficient in their third-round matches, although not quite as much as defending women’s champion Aryna Sabalenka, who beat Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko 6-0 6-0.

The opening days of the year’s first Grand Slam have been littered with lengthy duels, marathon tiebreaks and upsets and Djokovic, unbeaten at Melbourne Park since 2018, had survived dogfights in his opening two matches.

But the Serb, playing his 100th Australian Open match, was in no mood for a late night as he clinically disposed of dangerous Argentine 30th seed Tomas Etcheverry 6-3 6-3 7-6(2) to move ominously into the second week. “It was a great match, the best for me so far in this tournament and I was pleased with the way I played the entire match,” Djokovic, who is bidding to collect a record 25th Grand Slam title, said on Rod Laver Arena.

Djokovic’s 92nd match win at the Australian Open never looked in doubt as he looked sharper than in his laboured victories against Dino Prizmic and Alexei Popyrin.

Seventh seed Tsitsipas was particularly happy with his 6-3 6-0 6-4 win over French young gun Luca Van Assche given he had lost the opening set in his first two matches at Melbourne Park.

While Day 6 largely avoided the drama of Thursday’s action, Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva produced a thrilling comeback from 5-1 down in the third set to beat Frenchwoman Diane Parry 1-6 6-1 7-6(5) win. Sabalenka took less than an hour to beat the 28th-seeded Tsurenko, sweeping into the last-16 without dropping a set as she did last year on her way to her first Grand Slam title. — Reuters