It was not an ordinary day for Novak Djokovic in Adelaide. The number one seed needed extra time to break Quentin Halys’ resistance after a much more comfortable success against Constant Lestienne in the first round. «I think he has played at a pretty high level.
Without a doubt, he started better than me and taking the serve from him was not easy», he explained at the press conference. «We have both played very good tennis and I am proud to be able to win matches like this again.
Especially because winning two tie-breaks at this stage of the season is very important for the level of confidence that I haven’t fully recovered yet.» Djokovic spoke about the reception Australia gave him, referring to all of this a bit.
«I sincerely respect and appreciate the support of all the fans here this year. And especially the Serbian community. I try to use this energy to play my best tennis and win match after match. After all, that’s what professional sport is all about: trying to to interact with the fans through your game and give them a good show, a good feeling.»
The Serbian also spoke of the new generation that has reached the top after his dominance with Nadal and Federer. Explaining how each generation has, in fact, always had great talent at its disposal. “What Alcaraz did last year was historic for our sport.
He’s already won a major and is already number one in the world, so there’s no higher peak he can climb at the moment. I think we will see him or players like Rune and Aliassime getting higher and higher in the future. And maybe people don’t talk about Felix as much because of the results of the other two, but in the last five or six months he’s been playing some amazing tennis.»
Medvedev pays tribute to Djokovic
Daniil Medvedev has stated that there is and will be a quality gap between Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal. «Some moments where he was tight today where maybe he could get back in the game, I had some games against him where the momentum was changing, he managed to get the ball in play even like the last game, Love-15, 30- 15, two services on the line.
It’s difficult to return them,» Medvedev said. «I think the game I lost, what was it? 15-All, return winner, 30-40 double faulted. I don’t remember what it was in 30-All. But yeah, where other players couldn’t, how does he do it? No idea,» he added.
