Andy Murray ready to pounce on any Novak Djokovic errors in 2016

The top seeded pair took just an hour and 10 minutes to beat German wild card pair of Angelique Kerber, who lost the women’s singles final earlier in the day to Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, and Andrea Petkovic 7-5, 6-1 at the Pat Rafter Arena.

Having been overwhelmed by the world number one’s intensity and aggression, a stunned Nadal said: “I don’t know anybody who played tennis like this ever”.

Andy Murray is desperate to seek out weaknesses in Novak Djokovic’s armoury to boost his hopes at the Australian Open. We will see what’s going on in the next four next Grand Slams and see what’s going on the next couple of years.

Djokovic and Nadal are tied at 23 matches apiece in their career head-to-head. He has won against him in their last five meetings without dropping a set.

There will come a time when Djokovic isn’t the best player on the planet, but it certainly isn’t here yet. The Serbian broke in the second and sixth games and closed the set out to love.

Any notion that Berdych might then roll over in the second set soon faded as the pair held serve, treating fans to high-quality tennis throughout.

Agassi was aged thirty two when he won his eighth and final Grand Slam in 2003; Djokovic is already on ten and looks set to win several more for at least for a few years yet.

Afterwards he said he had a slight concern over an arm injury which has required attention from a physiotherapist, but added that he did not think “it is a major concern”.

Nadal, meanwhile, who endured a miserable 2015, showed he could be returning to form with his most impressive performance of the week, winning 6-3, 6-4 against Marchenko.

“It gives me a great deal of confidence for the rest of the season”, Djokovic told reporters after his Qatar victory.

Last year, Nadal’s “annus horriblis”, saw the Spaniard limp to the quarter-finals before being beaten by the Czech Tomas Berdych.

Djokovic saved a break point with a forehand crosscourt, working through a six-minute opener to hold with an ace.

Referring to the Spaniard’s recent improved play after struggling throughout most of 2015, when his ranking fell to as low as No. 10, Djokovic said he was not surprised that his longtime rival had turned things around.

BRISBANE, Australia // Roger Federer overcame a lingering sickness to hold off Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 on Friday and take his title defence into the semi-finals at the Brisbane International.

One of the biggest stories for this year’s Australian Open is depth on the women’s side.