Novak Djokovic returns to live with the problem in his left thigh in the match against the Frenchman Couacaud, won with the final score of 6-1 6-7(5) 6-2 6-0. Here is the match point with which Nole closed the challenge, from the Australian Open twitter profile.
Novak moves on ðª
The 9x champion beats Couacaud 6-1 6-7(5) 6-2 6-0 and will play Grigor Dimitrov in the third round.@DjokerNole • #AusOpen • #AO2023 pic.twitter.com/VMOcZklPlC — #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 19, 2023
The match
Couacad turns out to be decidedly more complicated than expected for the nine-time champion of the tournament, forced to ask for the intervention of the physiotherapist in the heart of the second set and above all after almost three hours of play.
The thirty-sixth consecutive victory in Australia, the number 23 in the down-under Grand Slam, is the third round challenge with Grigor Dimitrov. As with Carballes, Djokovic cancels the presentation phase thanks to an ace and a game that tends to be poor in headaches.
However, compared to the Spanish, Couacaud does not have the same characteristics but above all weapons that are good enough to keep the intensity high during prolonged exchanges. On the other hand, it is difficult for a player used to playing mainly only in the minor circuit.
In short: the Serbian phenomenon takes total control of the matter at 2-1 at the end of the longest game of the match, a game that costs the French tennis player even a small sprained left ankle. After the initial 6-1, the matter remains in balance until 4-4.
When Djokovic, after a few grimaces and another rather approximate game, asks for the intervention of the physiotherapist and enters the locker room for treatment on his left thigh. Evidently frightened by the circumstances and the situation, Nole sips his energies more intelligently and tends to pay more attention to all movements, lateral ones and those in progress.
Djokovic, who squanders two break points in a rather coarse way in the eleventh game, finds himself at 6-6 in an uncomfortable situation not only for the score. The Serbian squanders a 3-0 lead and struggles to manage the situation mentally.
Also because he commits a bloody double fault at 5-5 after a brief interruption between the first and the second which is then fatal for the development of the set. Called to a decidedly more thorny challenge than expected, Djokovic tries to fix things.
At least to re-establish hierarchies with the joke available and above all to respond more fluently in between. The 3-0 is a logical consequence: the 6-2 too. Djokovic, who returns to move more fluidly and who makes fewer mistakes, in game number eight places the second break of the set with four winning replies and also guarantees himself the possibility of serving first in the fourth.
The fifth is a completely necessary match, with a perfectly normal Djokovic who obviously asserts his greater predisposition to victory despite the circumstances and who essentially leaves the French tennis player at zero, mentally and above all physically emptied after the four consecutive victories in Australia.
