Australian Open: Novak Djokovic Soars Into Round Four

In a far more subdued affair, Djokovic’s No. 1-ranked female counterpart, American Williams was whisked on and off court before many late-arriving RLA fans could take their seats. It’s just that the Serb has been so incredibly good these last few years, that nothing but perfection seems acceptable from him.

“I think because of the very high standard that you set yourself with great results over the years, you expect from yourself a lot”, Djokovic told reporters.

‘I think for anyone who is innocent, whose name gets talked about with that stuff, then you feel sorry for them if they have done nothing wrong, ‘ Murray told national newspapers.

Novak Djokovic continued his charge at the Australian Open by overcoming Andreas Seppi 6-1 7-5 7-6(6) in the third round of the tournament in Melbourne on Friday. And when you watch from afar, it’s easy to think that he loses the break points because he lowers his intensity or gets nervous or in some way fails to play his natural game in the big moments.

Novak Djokovic has extended his remarkable run of success against Italian opposition to a 12th straight year with a straight-sets victory over Andreas Seppi in the third round of the Australian Open.

MELBOURNE: Stan Wawrinka was given a thorough workout before beating 37- year-old Radek Stepanek 6-2 6-3 6-4 to advance to the third round.

The Serbian top seed is relegated to Margaret Court Arena for his night match, bumped off the centre court Rod Laver Arena by combustible local hope Nick Kyrgios, who is against sixth seed Tomas Berdych.

The two defending champions are back in action on Friday.

Serena will have a chance to exact some family revenge on Kasatkina, who beat Venus Williams in an Australian Open warm-up tournament at Auckland last week.

The 10-time Grand Slam champion, however, did not have it all his own way against the 28th-seeded Italian, especially in the third set when he was forced to fend off two set points in the tiebreak.

The 28th seed for the Australian Open has then gone on to defeat Teimuraz Gabashvili in the first round after a four-set match, before he demolished Mirza Basic, only dropping seven games across a straight sets thrashing.

Djokovic was not at his best during the match, but still managed to avoid dropping a set as he joined Federer in the second week.

“I try not to pay too much attention to certain speculations, predictions and so forth, because that can cause a distraction that I don’t need”, he said. “So that s something that keeps me going”.

However, those are the classic “big four”, because according to the rankings and the past year of tennis it’s not Nadal but Stanislas Wawrinka the fourth most competitive player.