Novak Djokovic, Ashleigh Barty march into second round of Australia Open

Djokovic will now square off with either Tatsuma Ito of Japan or India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaran in the second round.

Image Credits: Twitter/@DjokerNole

World number two and Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic produced a spirited performance as he rebounded strongly from a set down against Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany to begin his title defence at the Australian Open with a win at Melbourne Park on Monday. 

After winning the opening two sets against his German opponent, the 32-year-old Serbian failed to capitalise on the same and went down in the third before he bounced back to clinch a 7-6(5), 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 win in a thrilling opening round clash that lasted two hours and 16 minutes at Rod Laver Arena.

With the win, Djokovic has now improved his ATP Head-to-Head rivalry against Struff to 3-0.

16-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic, who smashed 44 winners en route to his victory, has now also extended his unbeaten start to the 2020 ATP Tour season to seven matches.

The third-ranked player, who is bidding to close the gap on rivals Roger Federer (20) and Rafael Nadal (19) in the race of Grand Slam titles, will now square off with either Tatsuma Ito of Japan or India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaran in the second round. 

In another men's singles clash, Greek tennis sensation Stefanos Tsitsipas has also stormed into the second round of the first major of the season after registering a comfortable 6-0, 6-2, 6-3 victory against Salvatore Caruso of Italy in the first round. 

Tsitsipas will now take on German tennis player Philipp Kohlschreiber for a place in the third round of the tournament. 

Meanwhile, world number one Ashleigh Barty also kicked off her campaign at the Australian Open on a winning note by surviving a scare against Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine in a three-set thriller of the women's singles event. 

After going down in the opening set, the Australian tennis player rebounded strongly to clinch a 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 win over Tsurenko in a first-round clash that lasted one hour and 36 minutes at Rod Laver Arena.

In another women's singles clash, Japan's Naomi Osaka also kicked off her title defence with a 6-2, 6-4 triumph over Marie Bouzková of Czech in the opening round. She will now face Zheng Saisai in the second round.