Novak Djokovic’s stunningly brilliant and ominous statistics in the second week of Grand Slams
Novak Djokovic confirmed he found his rhythm after a less-than-convincing start to the Australian Open during his third round win against Tomas Martín Etcheverry – and that is ominous news for the rest of the field in Melbourne.
The 10-time champion has been struggling with illness and was well short of his best in his first two matches, particularly a second-round clash with Alexei Popyrin on Wednesday that he was lucky to escape.
But Djokovic, playing his 100th match at Melbourne Park, looked much more like his usual self in a 6-3 6-3 7-6 (2) victory over Argentina’s Etcheverry.
The Serbian was hitting his groundstrokes with their customary ferocity again and, although there were perhaps still a few more mistakes than he would have liked, he was always fully in control of his 92nd win on these grounds.
Djokovic said: “It was a great match, the best performance I had during this tournament. I’m pleased with the way I played throughout the entire match, particularly the first two sets.
“I’m really relieved and glad that I played the way I played and felt the way I felt tonight. Definitely much better than what was the case in the first two matches.
“Coming into the tournament I haven’t really felt great health-wise, physically, and also game-wise. It’s all connected obviously. I haven’t had the best out of the tournament in terms of the quality of tennis, but I’m in the fourth round.
I believe that things will progress as the tournament goes on. Hopefully every day will be better.”
While Djokovic has shown a few signs of frailty in his opening matches, history suggests the Serbian winning machine is hard to stop when he gets into the second week of a Grand Slam.
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Carlos Alcaraz’s win against Djokovic in last year’s Wimbledon final was a rare blip on a record that has few blemishes for Djokovic in recent years.
Since a painful loss against Marco Cecchinato in the 2018 French Open quarter-finals, when Djokovic famously admitted he may not play again for some time in his post match press conference, he has gone on a sensation run of victories in the game’s biggest events.
He has played in 19 Grand Slam tournaments since the defeat against Cecchinato and remarkably, he has won 12 of them.
That run of success has allowed him to take his major title haul to 24, cementing his legacy as the most successful male tennis player of all-time.
He did lose against Daniil Medvedev in the 2021 US Open final, in a match when he was striving to win a calendar Grand Slam and create a slice of modern tennis history.
The pressure of that historic moment appeared to be too much for Djokovic, but it is rare that this great champion slips up when he finds his feet in the second week of a major.
He lost against clay court master Rafael Nadal in the 2022 French Open semi-finals, but that year was severely impacted for Djokovic following his deportation from Australia due to his stance on Convid vaccines a few months before that Paris defeat.
Aside from the defeat against Alcaraz at Wimbledon last July, Djokovic has won every Grand Slam tournament he has entered since the 2023 Wimbledon Championships, but he does have some blips on his record in the fourth round of majors.
He will face France’s Adrian Mannarino at that stage of the Australian Open on Sunday, with his last fourth round exit coming in 2022, when he was disqualified from the US Open after accidentally hitting a linesperson with a ball after he hit out in anger.
His most recent fourth round defeat at the Australian Open came when he lost against Chung Hyeon in a shock setback in 2018.
Since that defeat, Djokovic is on a 31-match winning run in Melbourne and as his confidence grows following his first three matches of his 2024 campaign, it is hard to see anyone stopping his march.
