Novak Djokovic beats Andreas Seppi in the Australian Open third round
Friday 22 January 2016 13:22, UK
Novak Djokovic continued his path to a potential Australian Open semi-final showdown with Roger Federer with a 6-1 7-5 7-6 third-round victory over Italy's Andreas Seppi on Friday.
The five-time Australian Open champion raced out to an opening 5-0 lead before Seppi, who beat Federer in four sets at the same stage last year, finally held his own serve although the Serb went on to clinch the first set within 25 minutes.
Seppi, however, then rediscovered the form that troubled Federer so much last year and it was only successive lengthy rallies of 20 and 32 shots in the 11th game of the second set that enabled Djokovic to break, then serve out.
The pair remained on serve throughout an evenly matched third set until Djokovic saved two set points in the tie-break to set up a fourth round clash with 14th seed Gilles Simon who beat Federico Delbonis 6-3 6-2 6-1.
"I must be pleased with a straight-set win because both sets, especially the third, could have gone a different way," Djokovic said.
"I'm still not very satisfied with certain parts of the second and third set. I think I could have done better.
"But I played a quality player who took out Federer last year... he is not afraid to play big tennis on a big stage."
Djokovic, who won three grand slams amongst his 11 titles last year, is also not afraid to play on a big stage having dominated the men's game over the last five years.
Of the 20 grand slam tournaments played since 2011, the Serb has appeared in 15 finals, winning nine. He also made four other semi-finals and acknowledged expectations can create added pressure.
"The more you win actually the higher expectations are from yourself and from others," he said. "After the season that I've had, (the expectations are that) anything aside from a title or a final is not a success.
"I don't need additional pressure because pressure is part of what we do and it's already there. It's present. It comes in big portions, especially in the grand slams."
Elsewhere, seventh seed Kei Nishikori defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-5 2-6 6-3 6-4 and ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga eliminated Pierre-Hugues Herbert with a 6-4 7-6 7-6 win.
David Goffin also progressed to the next round after beating Dominic Thiem 6-1 3-6 7-6 7-5.
