Melbourne: Novak Djokovic avoided a potential banana skin in Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as the No.1 seed defeated the Frenchman in straight sets in the Australian Open here Thursday
Djokovic won 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 in a repeat of the 2008 final. Djokovic plays Denis Shapovalov of Canada in round three. He is going for a record seventh Australian Open title and his 15th Grand Slam singles championship.
Japanese star Kei Nishikori survived but 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka crashed out. In another titanic battle, Canadian Milos Raonic ousted Wawrinka in four tightly-contested sets that all went to tie-breaks, while Nishikori was stretched to a draining five sets against Ivo Karlovic before sinking to his knees in relief.
Seventh seed Dominic Thiem limped out when he retired while losing 7-5, 6-4, 2-0 to young Australian wildcard Alexei Popyrin. Thiem went through a first round five-setter against Benoit Paire that finished in the early hours of Wednesday morning and he never looked 100 per cent.
Asia’s top-ranked men’s player Nishikori needed an energy-sapping three hr 48min to get past big serving Croat Karlovic 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 5-7, 7-6 (10-7) in humid conditions.
“It was a tough match which could have gone both ways. He almost had it for sure,” said the eighth seed, a three-time quarterfinalist.
On Rod Laver Arena, 16th seed Raonic emerged the victor against Wawrinka, a three-time Grand Slam champion who is on the comeback trail from injury. The Swiss, unseeded for the first time since his debut in 2006, fell to the Canadian 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (13-11) 7-6 (7-5).
Raonic, who got to the Australian Open semifinals in 2016 before losing to Andy Murray, will next face France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert who beat last year’s semifinalist Hyung Cheon of South Korea.
In another match Germany’s Alexander Zverev wasted a flurry of opportunities before securing a 7-6(7-5), 6-4, 5-7 6-7(6-8), 6-1 win over unseeded Frenchman Jeremy Chardy to book a place in the third round.
The 21-year-old, seeded fourth, looked set for an easy outing after taking a two-set lead and with a flurry of break points in the third set. But he wasted four chances to break and then lost his serve to surrender the third set. The Frenchman, ranked 36, won the fourth set in a tiebreak after Zverev wasted four more break point opportunities in the seventh game.
Chardy ran out of steam in the final set as his errors mounted and Zverev cantered to victory in three hours and 46 minutes. He next plays local wildcard Alex Bolt, who stunned 29th-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon 2-6, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(10-8) 6-4.
