Novak Djok\u00adovic returned to the Australian Open nearly 700 days since winning the title for a ninth time and continued exactly where he left off at the Grand Slam he has dominated with a commanding first-round win on Tuesday.
\nAfter regular Melbourne adversary Andy Murray conjured some old magic to stop last year\u2019s semi-finalist Matteo Berrettini in a five-set classic, Djokovic was cheered on to Rod Laver Arena to complete a manic day with scorching heat and drenching rain.
\nDeprived of a tilt at a record-extending 10th title last year after being deported on the eve of the tournament for not having a Covid-19 vaccination, the Serbian showed his class as he glided past Spain\u2019s Roberto Carballes Baena 6-3, 6-4, 6-0.
\nWelcomed like a returning hero by the evening crowd, many sporting Serbian flags, the 35-year-old Djokovic was imperious throughout and rattled off the third set for the loss of four points to seal an 83rd win at the tournament.
\n\u201cIt was an unbelievable atmosphere,\u201d fourth seed Djokovic said on court. \u201cThanks for the welcome and the reception that I could only dream of. Very happy to be back.\u201d
\nIt was far from routine earlier, however, as five-time runner-up Murray rolled back the years and saved a match point to beat Berrettini 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-7(7), 7-6(10-6) in a near five-hour slog and former world number two Alexander Zverev edged Peruvian lucky loser Juan Pablo Varillas in another five-setter.
\nOrganisers had their work cut out as extreme heat forced a three-hour stoppage on the outside courts. As night fell, a storm brought heavy rain, leaving 11 matches unfinished, including nine which did not even start.
\nUnder the Rod Laver roof, second seed Ons Jabeur was given a scare by Tamara Zidansek before winning 7-6(8), 4-6, 6-1.
\nComing off a big pre-season, Murray channelled his halcyon days of 2016 as he raced to a two-set lead against the 13th-seeded Berrettini, who beat him at the US Open last year.
\nBerrettini stormed back though and missed an easy backhand on a match point before Murray sealed victory in the deciding tiebreak with a cruel net cord.
\n\u201cI just got a bit lucky there at the end with the net cord,\u201d said 35-year-old Murray. \u201cRight now I\u2019m just unbelievably happy, just proud of myself.\u201d
\nTwelfth seed Zverev had a huge scare against world number 103 Varillas but the German steadied himself to win a four-hour dogfight 4-6, 6-1, 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-4 at the Margaret Court Arena.
\nIt was Zverev\u2019s first win since tearing ankle ligaments in last year\u2019s French Open semi-final against Rafa Nadal.
\nTop 10 seeds Andrey Rublev and Taylor Fritz eased into the second round earlier on Tuesday with Russian Rublev beating former finalist Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 as temperatures nudged 36 degrees Celsius.
\nWomen\u2019s seeds Aryna Sabalenka and Caroline Garcia earlier enjoyed the relative cool on Rod Laver Arena before the rising mercury sent fans scurrying for shade as organisers invoked the Extreme Heat Policy and halted play on outside courts without roofs.
\nFifth seed Sabalenka, who opened the year by winning the Adelaide title without losing a set, kept up her fine form with an emphatic 6-1, 6-4 victory over Tereza Martincova.
\nFourth seed Garcia, who won the WTA Finals last season, was equally convincing with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Canadian qualifier Katherine Sebov.
\nGarcia will face another Canadian in 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez, who beat Alize Cornet 7-5, 6-2, her first win in the main draw at Melbourne Park.
\nThe 26th seed Elise Mertens was another winner. The Belgian outlasted Spain\u2019s former Melbo\u00adurne finalist Garbine Muguruza, who was cramping before losing 3-6, 7-6 (7\/3), 6-1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Novak Djok\u00adovic returned to the Australian Open nearly 700 days since winning the title for a ninth time and continued exactly where he left off…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4307,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}