Novak Djokovic marked a rare daytime appearance at the Australian Open with a dominant victory over Adrian Mannarino while Taylor Fritz defeated last year’s runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas to set up a meeting with the Serb in the quarter finals.
Djokovic, handed an early session slot at Melbourne Park for the first time since 2021, said earlier in the week he had been battling a viral affection and the world number one was coughing and appeared to be breathing heavily at times during the match.
The Serb’s health issues had no impact on his play, however, and with the roof at Rod Laver Arena closed due to rain he powered to a 32nd straight match victory at the tournament and a 58th Grand Slam quarter-final, equalling the all-time record of Swiss maestro Roger Federer.
“The way I played today, I don’t mind playing in the day to be honest,” said Djokovic, who is chasing a 25th Grand Slam to go past Margaret Court.
“It’s no secret I like to play at 7 p.m. but it was not too bad today at all.”
Tricky left-hander Mannarino can pose problems for the best of players by working the angles and the world number 19 pushed Djokovic hard in the opening game of the contest but still found himself down a set in only 33 minutes.
Djokovic let out a roar after breaking early in the second set, and delivered another body blow in the third game when he held serve after six deuces.
Two sets down and still not on the scoreboard, Mannarino finally won a game early in the third to draw level at 1-1, avoiding a rare “triple bagel” – 6-0 6-0 6-0 – and smiled as the crowd cheered.
Djokovic soon closed out victory, however, and said it had been one of his best performances.
“Yeah, after the first two sets, one of the best I’ve played in a while,” he said. “I really wanted to lose that game in the third set because the tension was building up in the stadium.
“I just needed to get that one out of the way so I could refocus on what I need to do to close out the match. I played great from the first to the last point.”
Taylor Fritz stormed past last year’s runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas and into the Australian Open quarter-finals for the first time after beating the Greek seventh seed 7-6(3) 5-7 6-3 6-3 at Melbourne Park on Sunday.
The American 12th seed arrived in Australia having never beaten a top-10 opponent at a Grand Slam and sealed a memorable victory with a clinical performance to equal his best result at a major.
Fritz, a quarter-finalist at last year’s U.S. Open and Wimbledon in 2022, sent down 13 aces and 50 winners as Tsitsipas’s frustration mounted, and closed out the contest in just over three hours with a backhand winner.
“I was just really trusting my shots,” the 26-year-old said in his on-court interview. “I served well the whole match. It just kept me in it and then when I really needed it at the end I just started playing my best tennis.”
Fritz’s victory came at a cost for his girlfriend Morgan Riddle, who had promised her social media followers she would eat an entire jar of Vegemite on Instagram Live if he won the match.
“My girlfriend thought I was too confident to win the match,” Fritz added when he was handed a jar of the Aussie food spread by his on-court interviewer.
“This is a big jar but a bet’s a bet. I have tried it, but I’m not the biggest fan so I won’t be partaking.
“But I’ll make sure it happens.”
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