Djokovic, 28, has yet to lose a set in five matches this year.
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Serena said the knee was no problem against Giorgi at the Australian Open.
ATP chairman Chris Kermode and Nigel Willerton, head of the Tennis Integrity Unit, represented the four governing bodies of tennis – the ATP, the WTA, the Grand Slam Board and the International Tennis Federation – and responded to allegations that in that last decade 16 players have been repeatedly flagged to the integrity unit.
“It will be a tough match”, Murray said.
Djokovic later responded to a question about an approach ahead of a tournament in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2007.
Djokovic said his focus in the off-season was balancing work with rest to ensure he could come into the Australian Open sharp and fresh. “Of course, we threw it (the approach) away right away”. There was nothing out of it.
Overall, though, he was consistently too good for one of the up-and-coming players on tour. They were dealt with.
He wore down Andy Murray to win last year’s final at Melbourne Park, and won three Grand Slams among 11 tournament victories in a stellar season, with a win-loss record of 82-6.
The American, who was recently named the greatest tennis player of her generation is in a search of a record-tying 22nd Grand Slam win in the Open era, which is now held by Steffi Graf. “For me, that’s an act of unsportsmanship, a crime in sport honestly. In fact, I think Rafael’s level is better than at this point previous year”.
The 10-time Grand Slam champion is projected to face Japan’s seventh seed Kei Nishikori in the quarters and Switzerland’s 17-time major victor Roger Federer in the semi-finals.
“Sometimes it s very hard to handle (the conditions) if it goes over 40 degrees”, Djokovic said. So how high up does it go?
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know how it feels”, he told reporters when asked what it was like to be one defeat from the end of his career.
Serena Williams shrugged off her knee injury and lack of match practice to beat Italian Camila Giorgi in the first round of the Australian Open. She was done in by 12 double faults, compared to just two for Williams.
“I think I’m going to play a lot in the daytime so I hope I can finish quick in every match”.
“My child is more important to me, and my wife is more important to me, than a tennis match”, he said.
“Kyle has been improving all the time”, Murray said. Genie Bouchard advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 win against Alexandra Krunic. In 2014, Kumkhum beat Kvitova in three sets to send the then sixth-ranked player out of the tournament. Robert Vinci and No. 23 Svetlana Kuznetsova.
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Wozniacki, seeded 16th, lost 1-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 to Kazakhstan’s world No76 Yulia Putintseva, while USA’s Stephens was beaten 6-3, 6-3 by Chinese qualifier Qiang Wang.
