Novak Djokovic entered round three at the Australian Open 2024 after beating home favourite Alexei Popyrin on Wednesday. The Serbian is chasing a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title in singles but is witnessing some unexpected troubles in the opening stages.
Popyrin, ranked 42, gave the home crowd something to celebrate as he seemed not to back down against the world's no.1 player. Djokovic was excellent in the first set with a 6-3 win but the Australian made a stunning comeback to clinch the second set by 6-4 and then was leading the third set by 5-4, which took the crowd to tease the Serbian.
But once again, Djokovic displayed his out-of-the-world mindset to silence the crowd at Rod Laver Arena as he emerged victorious by taking the third and fourth sets with a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 win. Djokovic will now face Argentina's Tomas Martin Etcheverry, seeded 30th, in the third round on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the last edition's runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas also needed four sets to overcome a tough challenge against Jordan Thompson of Australia. The Greek ace lost the opening set by 6-4 but made an excellent comeback clinching the next three sets by 7-6, 6-2, 7-6.
Top-ranked USA player Frances Tiafoe suffered a disappointing defeat against unseeded Tomas Machac. Top youngsters Alex de Minaur and Jannik Sinner saw no trouble entering the next round on Wednesday but the fans witnessed some upsets in the women's singles.
The world no.6 Ons Jabeur, who reached the final of Wimbledon 2023, faced a shocking 6-0, 6-2 defeat against the 16-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva. Eighth-ranked Maria Sakkari also failed to progress as she suffered a 6-4, 6-4 defeat against unseeded Elina Avanesyan.
More to follow...
