Novak Djokovic struggled more than expected in his match against Enzo Couacaud at the 2023 Australian Open. Also due to the injury to his left hamstring, the Serbian did not have an easy life against the Frenchman on the Rod Laver Arena.
After a one-sided first set, the transalpine took advantage of the fact that he had nothing to lose by playing a terrific second set and forcing Nole into overtime. Enzo fielded 80% of primes in the second fraction, forcing Djokovic to defend himself and punishing him with some valuable accelerations.
After the effort made in the second set, Couacaud’s level physiologically dropped and Novak had an easy time in the following two partials. The 21-time Grand Slam champion is hunting for his tenth seal in Melbourne Park, which would allow him to catch up with his eternal rival Rafael Nadal at 22 Grand Slams.
We’ll see if the ‘Djoker’ will be able to get over this knee problem and then play all his cards in the second week. To the microphones of ‘L’ Equipe’, Couacaud commented on his performance against Djokovic.
Djokovic def. Couacaud
After his defeat against Novak Djokovic where he achieved a second round of great beauty, the Habs spoke to our colleagues from the team and in particular on the legendary exchange he had with his coach during the duel.
“I had a lot of fun getting back on the pitch. I even went to speak with my trainer, he gave me tactical instructions and after a while we looked at each other, we both laughed and said to ourselves “It’s still incredible, we are going through something special” so it was really a lot of fun”, explained the Frenchman.
Let’s hope that this match will allow Enzo to pass a small course. Aged 27, the best ranking of the tricolor was 155th. Monday, it should not be far from this place, around the 166th place. Former World No. 1 Mats Wilander recently expressed concern about Novak Djokovic’s hamstring injury at the ongoing 2023 Australian Open.
“That is not reassuring, because I don’t remember him saying anything like that about his body. I really don’t,” Wilander said. “Rafa [Nadal] is obviously always very honest and he gets asked all the time. You never really see Novak injured, and if he is, he’s always very quiet about it.
So that’s a worry,” Wilander said. “The good think for Novak, when he’s a little bit injured, he can do so much with a tennis ball these days, he can flatten out the forehand, and for his serve. He served brilliantly,” Wilander said.
