Novak Djokovic marked his 100th Australian Open match with his 92nd victory – and his 31st consecutive win in Melbourne – by beating Tomas Martin Etcheverry in straight sets on Friday night.
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The 10-time champion will be happy there was a lot less drama than during his opening two matches of the week as he produced a clean performance to beat the Argentine world No.32 6-3 6-3 7-6(2).
The world No.1 will play a fourth round match at Melbourne Park for the 16th time in his career on Sunday when he takes on Frenchman Adrian Mannarino.
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“It was a great match and the best performance I’ve had during this tournament,” said Djokovic, who played his first Australian Open singles in 2005.
“I’m pleased with the way I played throughout the entire match, particularly the first two sets.
“He stepped it up. I think he raised his level of tennis probably for one or two levels in the third set. We went toe-to-toe in the tiebreak. I guess I just found the right shots, the right serves and closed it out in straights.”
Djokovic will be the first to admit that – by his high standards – it hasn’t been the most straightforward of weeks.
The 36-year-old has been managing a wrist injury, and has been under the weather with a cold.
He dropped sets against qualifier Dino Prizmic and unseeded Australian Alexei Popyrin during his opening two rounds, and even had to deal with a heckler towards the end of that four-set win against Popyrin.
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As soon as he started what was his third meeting with the 24-year-old from La Plata, though, there was a more clinical look to his tennis.
By the time they shook hands after two hours and 28 minutes on court, Djokovic had struck 34 winners and didn’t face a single break point all night.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion opened with a service hold to love and in the sixth game made his first move, breaking for a 4-2 after exactly half an hour. There were signs of another gear change as he held to 15 to make it 5-2 and quickly closed out the opener 6-3 with 44 minutes on the clock.
Djokovic, who on Friday became the only man in the Open Era to appear in 100-plus matches at all four majors, wasted even less time stamping his authority on the second set.
He produced a brilliant dig at full stretch to force the Argentine to miss a volley when he was serving at 30-all in the third game, and then crushed a forehand winner off a second serve to break for 2-1.
That early breakthrough set the tone for the second, but the third set was much tighter as Etcheverry threw everything he had at the top seed.
Djokovic is a master at winning tiebreaks at the majors, though, and showed exactly why during a mesmerising opening point that finished with another clean winner.
The Serb quickly built a lead, and in the blink of an eye had four match points at 6-2, sealing victory with his 10th ace.