{"id":356580,"date":"2023-12-31T11:14:54","date_gmt":"2023-12-31T12:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=356580"},"modified":"2023-12-31T13:01:51","modified_gmt":"2023-12-31T13:01:51","slug":"djokovic-dubs-australia-happy-place-after-stellar-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=356580","title":{"rendered":"Djokovic dubs Australia 'happy place' after stellar win"},"content":{"rendered":"

A grateful Novak Djokovic<\/a> has cruised his way to victory in his opening match of the United Cup for Serbia.<\/p>\n

The 24-time grand slam winner dubbed Australia his "happy place" after defeating China's Zhien Zhang 6-2, 6-2 in Perth on Sunday night.\ufeff<\/a><\/p>\n

"Thank you for coming and celebrating the new year's with us tonight," Djokovic told Jim Courier on Channel Nine's post-match coverage.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW LIVE:<\/strong> Summer of Tennis, United Cup day \ufeffthree<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>Seven dropped catches hand Aussies series win<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Socceroos legend set to follow in Ange's footsteps<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"\ufeffAustralia has been my happy place, the place where I've made the most (grand) slam wins in Melbourne."<\/p>\n

Despite \ufeffbelieving he had a "slow start", the 36-year-old managed to snatch victory after just over an hour of play.<\/p>\n

\"Djokovic\"<\/p>\n

"I was a little bit rusty at the beginnings, out of tempo … in the first five, six games, when you don't play an official match for \ufeffover a month," he said.<\/p>\n

"The serve was great on my part, whenever I needed to get out of trouble.<\/p>\n

"The momentum shifted through to my side."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/UnitedCupTennis\/status\/1741419451399000411<\/a><\/p>\n

The crowd was behind the Serbian all match, heard cheering "Novak" during breaks in play. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"To win straight sets, the first match of my season is great," he said.<\/p>\n

He was set return to take on China's Zhizhen Zhang and Qinwen Zheng with his mixed doubles partner Olga Danilovic\ufeff later in the night, in hopes of helping Serbia to victory.<\/p>\n

Watch Australia take on the United States and Great Britain in the 2024 United Cup from December 29.<\/strong><\/em> Every match ad free and on demand on Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A grateful Novak Djokovic has cruised his way to victory in his opening match of the United Cup for Serbia. The 24-time grand slam winner […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":356582,"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\/356580"}],"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=356580"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":356583,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356580\/revisions\/356583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/356582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=356580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=356580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=356580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}