Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic secured a place in the quarterfinal of the ongoing Australia Open – equalling Roger Federer’s long-standing record of appearing in the 58 grand slam quarterfinals. This would also be Djokovic’s 14th quarterfinal in the Australian Open – equalling the record of Spaniard Rafael Nadal and Aussie John Newcombe for the joint second most in tournament. The Serb is also on 32-match winning streak at the Australian Open.

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The 24-time grand slam winner is chasing his 11th Australian Open title and has hit form after being a bit sluggish in the first two rounds. His campaign hit the right notes during his fourth round win against 20th seed Adrian Mannarino on Sunday (January 21). Djokovic just dropped three games to win the match 6-0, 6-0, 6-3 to enter the round of 16.

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“Today was the best day in terms of tennis, the way I felt on the court. I’m really excited to enter the second week,” said Djokovic after the win where he wanted to lose a game to get three bagels out of his mind.

“I really wanted to lose that game in the third set because the tension was building up so much in the stadium,” he said, referring to the possibility of completing a rare “triple bagel”.

“I just needed to get that out of the way and re-focus,” said the 36-year-old Serb.

He’ll next face American Taylor Fritz who has beaten Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round to enter the last 16. Djokovic has 8-0 lead against Fritz and seven of them are in straight sets. The one time Fritz stretched the game was back in 2021 at the Australian Open when they played a five-set match.

Fritz, however, is confident of giving a good fight to the Serb.

“I think a lot of these match-ups are from when I was a bit younger,” said Fritz. “Since I’ve improved, become a better player, the times I’ve played him since I just haven’t brought my best level and you need it when you compete with someone like Novak. Gonna have to serve like I did today but I feel confident if I play like I did today, then I have a chance.”

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