From a arrange and in management, Novak appeared set for a snug Sunday night on the Australian Open.
Nonetheless, the Serbian star survived a problem to beat the 18-year-old Croat Dino Prizmic 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 and reached the second spherical in Melbourne for the seventeenth time in 19 appearances.
Within the pair’s first ATP H2H assembly, Djokovic began nicely. He broke twice to race to a one set lead.
The second set was extra aggressive. The gamers had exchanged breaks as soon as earlier than the 2023 Roland Garros Junior champion clinched the tie-break to degree the competition.
The third set noticed 5 breaks of serve. The Croatian hope broke on two events, whereas the 10-time titlist transformed his break level possibilities 3 times.
Djokovic was in management firstly of the fourth set. He stormed to a 4-0 lead earlier than Prizmic managed to take one break again. Novak sealed the victory 4 video games later, after 4 hours of play.
“He deserved each applause, each credit score that he received tonight,” stated Novak after Prizmic left the court docket to a standing ovation from the Melbourne crowd. “He’s an incredible participant, so mature for his age and he dealt with himself on the court docket extremely nicely. It may simply have been his match as nicely. He was a break up within the third, he fought despite the fact that he was 0-4 and a break level down within the fourth set. He confirmed nice mentality and resilience. He actually made me run for my cash tonight.”
Match statistics: aces (11-7), double faults (1-7), winners (40-31), unforced errors (49-42), complete factors gained (139-113).
Within the second spherical on Wednesday, Djokovic will play towards Alexei Popyrin (AUS).
Photograph: AP
