Novak Djokovic overcame a tough four-set tussle with Frances Tiafoe to move into the third round of the Australian Open, triumphing 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-6, 6-3. Over the three and a half hours on court, Djokovic was frequently too passive against a spirited Tiafoe, who demonstrated his improved discipline by matching the world No 1’s intensity for most of the match. With the outcome in the balance in the third set tie-break, Djokovic’s clutch serving proved the difference. After three days, Nick Kyrgios gets the party going at Australian OpenRead more
The contest between Djokovic and Tiafoe was particularly notable as their serving underlined just how fast the courts are playing in Australia this year. Djokovic served 26 aces in the four sets and he was on the receiving end of 23. Both are extremely high ace numbers for a match involving Djokovic, whose serve usually relies on setting up an easy finishing shot rather than outright aces, while it is normally difficult to ace Djokovic himself.
“If I serve well, it does help me,” he said. “It is definitely more suitable to big servers. I’m not sure what is the reason why it keeps on getting faster and faster in terms of the speed of the court each year. This is the fastest it has ever been. I mean, it’s not only my opinion. I’ve been talking to a lot of players. I mean, you just have to serve well. You can win a lot of free points there.”
The court speed is of particular interest for Djokovic now as his path to the quarter-final will likely involve two big servers who will be difficult to break. He faces 27th seed Taylor Fritz in the third round, who has one of the fastest arms on the tour, then Milos Raonic is likely to follow in round four.Serena Williams remains on course after sweeping into third round of Australian OpenRead moreAdvertisementhttps://adv.brandwebsearch.com/show/300/600/bff6553a-d6b8-4858-b194-dba74ac3170f
Elsewhere, the 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka was the biggest men’s casualty of the day after a dramatic 7-5, 6-1, 4-6, 2-6, 7-6 (9) loss to Marton Fucsovics of Hungary. After recovering from two sets down and then fighting back when Fucsovics served for the match at 5-3 in the fifth set, Wawrinka led 9-6 in the match tie-break and he held triple match point before he lost the final five points of the match.
“From 6-1 [in the tie-break] I start to hesitate a little bit the way I was playing,” said Wawrinka. “I wanted to put the ball maybe too much in and I’m not going completely for my shot and that’s when I start to miss a little bit and it helped him to come back in the match. He was fighting well, he’s a tough player, he’s a good player and he deserved to win.”
The third seed Dominic Thiem brushed aside Dominik Koepfer of Germany 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 and sixth seed Alexander Zverev beat Maxime Cressy 7-5, 6-4, 6-3.
