Australian Open: Novak Djokovic thrash Andreas Seppi

Serena Williams of the United States hits a forehand return Margarita Gasparyan of Russian Federation during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016. One can watch Australian Open matches live and exclusive on SONY ESPN, SONY ESPN HD, SONY SIX and SONY SIX HD.

Novak Djokovic has responded to his odd omission from Lleyton Hewitt’s retirement tribute video and he’s just as confused as everyone else.

The world No. 1 won 6-1 7-5 7-6 (8-6) to move through to a round-of-16 encounter with 14th-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon, who smashed Argentina’s Federico Delbonis 6-3 6-2 6-1 earlier on Friday.

Yet Djokovic still thought it was a forgettable day.

“Sorry, everybody is laughing”.

“I know exactly what I was doing, but I won’t say it. I had a plan”. Djokovic said, looking into the stands.

On court afterwards, a fan shouted from the crowd, “No more drop shots!” You know, it’s easy for body.

Asked if he would take action against Tuttosport, Djokovic said: “I have nothing more to say, guys”.

“I’ve had worse situations where I had much less time to recover after long matches”.

“Today was one of the best matches I’ve had this week”.

Wawrinka has been suffering from a cold since the start of the tournament but feels the extra work he did in the off-season has put him in good shape for the beginning of the year.

Djokovic, champion for five of the last eight years at Melbourne Park, played a rare match away from Rod Laver Arena but still proved too strong for Italian Andreas Seppi, securing his victory 6-1 7-5 7-6(6). “But the way I’ve been playing, I have a lot of faith and confidence in my game”. “You’re always trying to improve”, said Sharapova, the 2008 champion and four-time finalist in Australia.

Against a player showing off his unwavering consistency from the baseline and regularly striking the ball back down the middle of the court, Djokovic coughed up an extraordinary 100 errors.

He finished the season with more ATP points than Federer (number two in the world) and Andy Murray (number three in the world) combined. “This was five sets”.

“You can pick any match that you like that the top player lost and just create a story out of it”.

The Serbian star’s opponent in the quarterfinals will be Japan’s Kei Nishikori, the No. 7 seed, who rolled over France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the No. 9 seed, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.

The Swiss man is the last player who managed to beat Novak Djokovic in a Grand Slam final.

Djokovic got two service breaks in the fifth game only to be broken back once, but he finally clinched victory on his third match point with a backhand victor.

Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska will face Spain’s 10th seed Carla Suarez in the other quarter-final on Tuesday after both players came through testing three-setters.

The reigning champion, who eased into the third round with a 6-1, 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) win over French teenager Quentin Halys in Melbourne on Wednesday, January 20, described the current speculation about tennis as “absurd”.

That’s the driving factor here. I didn’t practise for a whole week. “So that’s just been my thing”, she said. Sharapova won 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-0. It’s a statistic she tries to block from her mind.

Federer’s task is not a straightforward one either, going up against sixth seed Tomas Berdych.