Australian Open: De Minor Winner, Djokovic Easily Slips Into Quarterfinals

Three small sets and we are already moving on. Novak Djokovic easily reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open on January 23 at the end of the morning French time. The Serb settled the current affairs by beating the Australian Alex De Minor (24th) 6-2, 6-1, 6-2. The thigh is still bandaged, world number 5 never trembled, either because of an injury that could wake up, or because his opponent quickly recovered.

“I cannot apologize for not extending the match. I wanted to win in three sets, I introduced the Serb to the public, evaluating the “best match” he played since the beginning of the season.

The 35-year-old Serbian, who is aiming to win a 22nd Grand Slam title in Melbourne to equal the record of his Spaniard rival Rafael Nadal, will face Russia’s Andrey Rublev (6th) for a place in the bottom four. If he wins his tenth Australian Open, he will also reclaim his world number one spot.

The more he advances, the stronger he is

An impressive bandage on the top of the Serb’s left thigh reminded observers that he was indeed suffering from a hamstring. He has shown troubling signs in previous rounds, especially against Enzo Cuoco. This time he didn’t show much. Better, he quickly put himself into quiet mode, time for the first few warm-up games. As soon as the car started, Alex De Minaur was eaten raw.

“Today it was not visible that I was injured,” the Serb continued. I’ve been taking a lot of anti-inflammatory pills for the last few days to mask the pain. I usually don’t like it. I don’t want to go into further explanations, but everything was fine today. I don’t want to celebrate too early, I never take anything for granted, but I’m happy with how I played, how I kicked the ball, how I moved. »

Attention: the further the tournament progresses, the more invincible Djokovic seems to be. You have to be strong to keep him from winning at the end of the week. Andrei Rublev, his next opponent has been warned.