epa05118995 Novak Djokovic of Serbia plays a shot against Andreas Seppi of Italy during their third round match on day five of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 22 January 2016.
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The claims were put to Djokovic following his 6-1 6-2 7-6 (7/3) win against Frenchman Quentin Halys in the Australian Open second round, and the 10-time grand slam champion denied committing any offence. Neither player relinquished serve, and in the tiebreaker, Seppi, who stunned Roger Federer here in the same round past year, actually held two set points, but the Italian tightened up, eventually netting a routine forehand to make it 6-6.
If Djokovic gets past Seppi, he could face Gilles Simon in the fourth round and potentially Kei Nishikori in the quarterfinals – if Nishokori wins his third-round match Friday against No. 26-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
Also on the women’s side, the Germans continued their surprising run, with World No. 82 Anna-Lena Friedsam beating last year’s US Open finalist Roberta Vinci (No. 13) 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the round of 16. But I played a quality player who took out Federer past year.
Djokovic had previously explained how he turned down a bribe made to him in 2006, when he was offered 200,000 USA dollars – £141,000 on the current exchange rate – to lose a first-round match in St Petersburg.
“In the first set I was sore but after treatment I felt better”, he said.
The world No. 29 was much more aggressive with his groundstrokes, going for the lines and hitting them more often than not.
Williams did a twirl on Rod Laver Arena after crushing Russian teenager Daria Kasatkina 6-1 6-1 to extend her record of wins to 71 matches, the post-match chatter quickly turning to her cropped-top outfit.
Djokovic, gunning for an 11th Grand Slam title, is wary of the threat posed by Seppi, seeded 28.
“I play mind games with them – I speak Italian”, joked the five-time Australian Open champion. “Like past year the third round was the end for me, so I hope to go further this time”.
In a week overshadowed by allegations of match-fixing on the professional circuit, Djokovic was asked if Friday’s clash was hard to prepare for and he said: “I understand how I need to carry myself”.
The world number one’s long-time rival Maria Sharapova is also on court, with the in-form Russian taking on American Lauren Davis as she looks for her first Australian title since 2008.
“I’m still not very satisfied with certain parts of the second and third set”. I said everything I needed to say two days ago.
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“It’s present. It comes in big portions, especially in the grand slams”.
