{"id":37390,"date":"2026-01-24T12:33:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T12:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=37390"},"modified":"2026-01-24T12:33:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T12:33:46","slug":"djokovic-reaches-australian-open-fourth-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=37390","title":{"rendered":"Djokovic reaches Australian Open fourth round"},"content":{"rendered":"
Novak Djokovic escaped the heat and doused Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp 6-3 6-4 7-6(4) at the Australian Open on Saturday to reach the fourth round and add another line in the record book during his bid for a standalone 25th Grand Slam title.<\/p>\n

With his 102nd match victory at Melbourne, the evergreen Serb equalled six-times champion Roger Federer’s record at the year’s first major and also became the first player to secure 400 wins at the Grand Slams.<\/p>\n

“I feel really good. It’s been a great start,” the 10-times Melbourne Park champion declared.<\/p>\n

“Things can change and I’m not getting ahead of myself, because last year I learned a lesson, I got too excited too early in some of the Slams, playing well and getting to the quarter-finals and semi-finals and then getting injured.<\/p>\n

“I’m still trying to give these young guys a push for their money. I’m still around and hanging in there. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are playing at a different level.<\/p>\n

“But when you enter the court and the ball rolls, you always have a chance … especially on this court. I look forward to a good battle.”<\/p>\n

Djokovic opened the evening session on a steamy day in which play continued under the main showcourt roofs and eased to a 5-3 lead before firing a sublime backhand crosscourt winner and celebrating with his arms out to mimic an airplane.<\/p>\n

He endured minor turbulence following that point, but had no trouble taking full flight again as he broke in the opening game of the second set when a deflated Van de Zandschulp fired his backhand long.<\/p>\n

Djokovic briefly lost his cool while up 4-2, striking a ball that flew close to a ball kid stationed near the net. Though the Serb avoided a code violation, the incident triggered memories of his 2020 U.S. Open default for striking a line judge.<\/p>\n

Up two sets, Djokovic had treatment for a blister on his right foot after a tumble in the third and rallied from a break down before holding his nerve in the tiebreak to set up a clash with either 16th seed Jakub Mensik or Ethan Quinn.<\/p>\n

“A few points before (I fell) I almost twisted my ankle and wanted to see the physio for my blisters,” Djokovic said.<\/p>\n

“Thankfully I managed to have a good fall and protected myself. Things could have been very ugly in that moment.”<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic escaped the heat and doused Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp 6-3 6-4 7-6(4) at the Australian Open on Saturday to reach the fourth round and add another line in the record book during his bid for a standalone 25th Grand Slam title. With his 102nd match victory at Melbourne, the evergreen Serb equalled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}