Novak Djokovic claimed he wanted to lose a game during a devastating display at the Australian Open as he equalled a Roger Federer record. The Serbian superstar will now face Taylor Fritz – whose girlfriend Morgan Riddle will now have to pay a forfeit on Instagram live.
Meanwhile, women’s title favourite Aryna Sabalenka swore live on TV as she reached the quarter-finals for the loss of only 11 games. US Open champion Coco Gauff was upstaged by Rod Laver as she reached the last eight in her last Grand Slam as a teenager.
And Orange Bowl champion Hannah Klugman won her first ever match here in the girls singles while the son of an Aussie legend lost on his debut.
ANOTHER RECORD FOR DJOKOVIC
In pursuit of a 25th Grand Slam singles title, the Serbian superstar reached his 58th Major quarter-final – and 14th here – with his 32 consecutive win at the Australian Open.
Roger Federer has set the last-eight record with his last Grand Slam appearance at Wimbledon in 2021.
The world No.1 was on his way to more history with his first triple bagel when he won the first 13 games against Adrian Mannarino before the No.20 seed finally got on the board after 69 minutes.
It caused the biggest cheer of the match under the roof in the Rod Laver Arena as the smiling Frenchman raised his arms to the crowd. “I really wanted to lose that game in the third set because the tension was building up so much in the stadium,” Djokovic claimed. “I needed to get that out of the way and refocus on what I needed to do to finish the match.”
The defending champion had felt under the weather earlier in the tournament but he said: “The last couple of days has been really good so it’s going in a positive direction health wise, tennis wise, so I’m really happy. I think I played really well, especially in the first two sets.”
Djokovic, who won 6-0 6-0 6-3, was playing in the day session here for the first time since 2021 with local hero Alex de Minaur playing the opening match in the evening session.
“The way I played today, I don’t mind playing in the day,” he smiled. “It is no secret I like to play at 7pm but it wasn’t too bad today!”
MORGAN RIDDLE’S VEGEMITE BET
No.12 seed Fritz reached the Australian Open quarter-final for the first time with his 7-6 5-7 6-3 6-3 win over last year’s finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas. It was the American’s first win over a top ten player at a Grand Slam – and at the end he looked to his box and said: “I told you”.
He explained: “I thought I was going to win. My girlfriend told me I was too confident going into the match.”
Influencer Riddle told her 212,000 followers that she would eat a pot of Vegemite – the Aussie version of Marmite only worse – on Instagram Live if Fritz won today. He laughed: “I won’t be partaking but I will make sure it happens. I have tried it. I wasn’t the biggest fan.”
SABALENKA’S SECRET TO SUCCESS
The women’s defending champion reached the quarters for the loss of only 11 games when the Belarusian dismissed American Amanda Ansimova 6-3 6-2.
With Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina out, the world No.2 is the favourite to retain her title. She did not drop a point on her service in the first set as she won 16 out of 16 points.
But Sabalenka did let slip a swear word when asked her new ritual of signing her name on the bald head of her fitness coach Jason Stacybefore each match of her Melbourne title defence.
“We just like to do weird s***, guys!” she said in her courtside interview. “We just started this. I did it before the first match, and after I won, I told Jason, ‘Well, I guess it’s a routine right now.’ Every time he’s not super happy that I’m going to do that. He’s like: ‘Okay, anything for the win’. I’m like: ‘Thank you’.”
Rod Laver is in his own house Gauff needed only 66 minutes to beat Poland’s Magdalena Frech 6-1 6-2 in the first match of the day in the Rod Laver Arena.
And the US Open champion, playing her final Grand Slam as a teenager, later got a laugh from the home crowd after her reaching the quarter-finals here for the first time in fron of the Aussie great. “Luckily when I noticed he came in I was up a lot so I wasn’t too nervous,” she said in her courtside interview.
“You guys were clapping (but) I knew it wasn’t for us – it was only the first set. Then I saw him on the screen and I thought: ‘Oh, OK, that makes sense’.” The American then addressed Laver and said: “It was an honour to play in front of you, so thank you for coming to my match.”
Gauff will next face No.37 seed Marta Kostyuk after the Ukrainian beat Russian qualifier Maria Timofeeva 6-2 6-1 to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final.
KLUGMAN THROUGH… BUT HEWITT OUT OF JUNIORS
British teenager Hannah Klugman won the prestigious U18 Orange Bowl title in December.
And the Wimbledon-based Klugman, 14, won her rain-delayed first round match 6-2 6-3 in only 61 minutes against 17-year-old Chile’s Antonia Vergara Rivera of Chile in her first appearance at the Australian Open.
“I’m loving it out here in Australia, first time here,” she said. “The people here are so nice. The atmosphere was great as well.”
Klugman was followed on a packed Court 3 by Cruz Hewitt – the 15-year-old son of former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt.
The wildcard lost 6-2 6-3 to American No.6 seed Alexander Razeghi. But speaking before the match, his father said: “I’m just unbelievably proud, to be honest. It’s just a really special moment, my first ever main draw match at the Australian Open was actually out on Show Court 3 as well.”
