{"id":162201,"date":"2023-01-19T13:32:23","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T12:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/?p=162201"},"modified":"2023-01-19T15:04:03","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T14:04:03","slug":"novak-passes-second-round-test-from-couacaud-faces-dimitrov-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/news\/tennis\/novak-passes-second-round-test-from-couacaud-faces-dimitrov-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak passes second-round test from Couacaud, faces Dimitrov next"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nole is through to the third round of the Australian Open<\/a> after a stern test from the qualifier.<\/p>\n

Fourth seed Novak Djokovic continued quest for 10th title in Melbourne, following a 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-0 win over Enzo Couacaud in Rod Laver Arena on Thursday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Serbian star booked himself a spot in the third round after three hours and four minutes of play.<\/p>\n

Novak was cruising through the opening set. He broke in the fourth and sixth games to storm to a one-set lead, closing it out with a forehand winner and a big serve.<\/p>\n

Both players looked strong on serve in the second set. The nine-time champion received medical treatment at 4-5, as his movement was hampered by hamstring injury. The French qualifier played the set of his life to prevail in a tie-break and squared things up in the entertaining contest.<\/p>\n

From there on, Nole showed his greatness and dominated the rest of the match. He played outstanding tennis to win 12 of the final 14 games, breaking five times.<\/p>\n

“A lot happened in tonight’s match,”<\/strong> Djokovic said in his on-court interview. “Enzo deserves credit for the fight, he played some great tennis, especially in the second set. We both had medical timeouts and struggled a little bit, but I managed to respond well in the third and especially the fourth set. I love playing night sessions. Let’s keep it going.” <\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking of the hamstring, Novak said: “To be honest, it is not good at all. I will take it day to day. It was better last match, the feeling, than tonight, but that is all I can say, and now it is up to God to help me and the physio. I hope I will be able to recover and be ready for a tough match next up.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Match statistics: aces (9-7), double faults (6-2), winners (63-36), unforced errors (36-32), total points won (145-101)<\/p>\n

Novak goes on to face no.27 seed Grigor Dimitrov for a place in the last 16 (9-1 H2H). <\/strong><\/p>\n

The former world no.3 from Bulgaria beat Laslo Djere in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, 6-0.<\/p>\n

On playing Dimitrov in the next round, Djokovic said: “I haven’t played Grigor in many years, I don’t think we’ve ever faced each other here on this court. Hopefully it’s going to be an entertaining match, I know him really well, we are friends off the court. Let the better player win.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 35-year-old Belgrade native is chasing a record-tying 22nd Grand Slam trophy and will reclaim no.1 in the ATP Rankings if he wins the title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Novak kept up his pursuit for a 10th Australian Open title after coming through a tricky second round match against French qualifier Enzo Couacaud. The fourth seed recorded a 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-0 victory in three hours and 4 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":162198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101011992,101013305,101010469,101012051,101011697],"class_list":["post-162201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-australia","tag-australian-open-2023-en","tag-grand-slam-en-2","tag-melbourne","tag-second-round-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162201"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162263,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162201\/revisions\/162263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}