{"id":265136,"date":"2023-01-21T05:53:58","date_gmt":"2023-01-21T06:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=265136"},"modified":"2023-01-22T13:59:43","modified_gmt":"2023-01-22T13:59:43","slug":"djokovic-sets-a-date-with-quickest-de-minaur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=265136","title":{"rendered":"Djokovic sets a date with 'quickest' de Minaur"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fourth round blockbuster has been confirmed with \ufeffAlex De Minaur<\/a> and Novak Djokovic<\/a> set to go head-to-head for the first time at this year's Australian Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

De Minaur cruised past French player Benjamin Bonzi at Rod Laver Arena on Saturday, winning 7-6, 6-2, 6-1 to continue a purple patch for the 22nd seed.<\/p>\n

Djokovic also took a straight sets win, defeating 27th seed Grigor Dimitrov 7-6, 6-3, 6-4 despite dreaded hamstring niggles returning.<\/p>\n

LIVE UPDATES:<\/strong> Australian Open day six<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Seething Djokovic explodes in nuclear AO interview<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Coach's sneaky ploy caught on camera\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Should de Minaur take victory against all odds, it would end 24-match winning streak at the Australian Open for the Serbian tennis star.<\/p>\n

The pair are slated to face each other on Monday.<\/p>\n

\"Novak<\/p>\n

"Obviously, de Minaur is one of the quickest players on the tour, probably the quickest guy," said Djokovic.<\/p>\n

"He has improved a lot. He has Lleyton Hewitt in his corner who is a multiple grand slam winner, number one in the world.<\/p>\n

Watch the Australian Open live and free on the Nine Network: Channel 9, 9Gem and<\/strong><\/em> 9NOW<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

"That's a great team. Playing in front of you guys, obviously I don't know how many of you guys will be on my side. I don't think too many," he laughed.<\/p>\n

"It's going to be \ufeffa great atmosphere I'm sure and I'm looking forward to it."<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

Djokovic hailed a strong start to the match against Dimitrov, which set the tone for the straight sets win.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\ufeff"Every point, really, every game mattered," said Djokovic.<\/p>\n

"The turning point, so to say, for both players was right from the blocks, the very first game.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"Making an early break for me was important. Obviously, I didn't know how I was going to feel physically. Was kind of going up and down."<\/p>\n

"\ufeffGrigor is someone I truly admire and respect. He's one of my best friends on the tour. We go back a long time.<\/p>\n

"He's one of the most talented players you'll see on the tour. He's been around for many years. He's such a great athlete.<\/p>\n

"I thought double break in the third was going to be enough for me, but he was locked in from that moment.<\/p>\n

"Up to the very last shot I didn't know if I would prevail or not.\ufeff It was an incredible battle."<\/p>\n

\"Match<\/p>\n

With Andy Murray's exit at the hands of Roberto Bautista Agut, Djokovic is the only grand slam winner remaining in the competition.\ufeff<\/p>\n

His forthcoming match against de Minaur is set to be only his second against an Australian at the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

His sole match to date was against Lleyton Hewitt in 2012, which was won by the Serbian.\ufeff<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A fourth round blockbuster has been confirmed with \ufeffAlex De Minaur and Novak Djokovic set to go head-to-head for the first time at this year's […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=265136"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265138,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265136\/revisions\/265138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=265136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=265136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=265136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}