Novak Djokovic says return to Rod Laver Arena exceded his wildest dreams

Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic hasn’t slipped at all in the time he has been away from the Rod Laver Arena Court.

Few players have dominated the centre court at the Melbourne Park facility like Djokovic.

While the court appears to still be to his liking the crowd are also fully behind Djokovic.

He received a huge ovation when he came out onto the court and that backing continued throughout his opening match against Roberto Carballes Baena.

“I was really hoping to get a good reception and this was more than I hoped for, more than I dreamed of,” Djokovic told Alize Lim and Mats Wilander on the Eurosport coverage of the Australian Open.

“After all that happened in the last 12 months people were super nice to me, especially the Serbian community, incredible support, I am very grateful and very happy. To play in that kind of atmosphere helps a lot with the tennis.

“I was really looking forward to the match. I was a bit more nervous before the Kyrgios match a few days ago as that was the first time on Rod Laver Arena in front of a full house.”

Djokovic was pleased with how he executed his game plan against the Spaniard.

“When you play against players like Carballes Baena who is a very good defender, counter-puncher and tries to play deep in the court, you just got to beat him with the pace,” he said.

“You’ve got to play fast and I knew that coming into the match but obviously one thing is to prepare yourself tactically and the other thing is to execute on the court with nerves and everything during the match.”

The Serbian appeared to take on board some advice from his coach Goran Ivanisevic during the match.

He elaborated: “I was looking to dictate the play with the forehand, be solid with the backhand and look for the slower ball mid-court to try and open up the court with the forehand and I heard Goran [Ivanisevic, coach] say I should open him up a bit more because he’s anticipating the ball very well, so regardless of the ball you send his way, if he’s there and he reads you, you can block it well, so just try to make him uncomfortable I guess.”

Djokovic looked good throughout the contest and showed no sign of injury or weakness apart from some strapping on his left thigh.

“I think I started off well, it was a close second set, especially the first five, six games of the second set,” the former No 1 said.

“Towards the end of the second set when I broke his serve I felt like I was cruising and started to swing through the ball more.”

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