Novak Djokovic set up a mouth-watering Australian Open quarter-final against Carlos Alcaraz with a convincing victory over Jiri Lehecka.
Djokovic continued his bid for a record 25th Grand Slam title with a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-4) win against the Czech 24th seed.He will face Alcaraz in the last eight after the Spaniard progressed when British number one Jack Draper retired with a hip injury earlier on Sunday.
Alcaraz has beaten Djokovic in the past two Wimbledon finals, but the Serb got the better of the 21-year-old to win gold at the Paris Olympics last summer – Djokovic’s self-proclaimed “biggest sporting achievement”.
Djokovic was booed by the crowd as Lehecka threatened to force a fourth set, and the 11-time Australian Open champion was quick to leave Rod Laver Arena after his victory.” Thank you very much for being here tonight.
I appreciate your support and I will see you in the next round,” the 37-year-old said.Speaking in a news conference afterwards, Djokovic clarified his reasons for swerving the usual on-court interview with four-time major winner Jim Courier.
He referred to the actions of Channel 9 newsreader Tony Jones, who shouted “Novak, he’s overrated, Novak’s a has-been, Novak kick him out” towards Djokovic fans while live on camera on Friday.”
A couple days ago the famous sports journalist who works for official broadcaster Channel 9 here in Australia made a mockery of Serbian fans and also made insulting and offensive comments towards me,” Djokovic said.”
So since they’re official broadcasters, I chose not to give interviews for Channel 9. I have nothing against Jim Courier or the Australian public.”It was a very awkward situation for me.”
On Monday, Jones said he thought the comments were “banter” and “humour”, but gave an on-air apology – one he said he had already offered to Djokovic’s team 48 hours earlier.”
I stand by that apology to Novak, if he felt any disrespect, which quite clearly he does.”Channel 9 issued a public apology as well, saying “no harm was intended towards Novak or his fans”.
During his third-round win over Tomas Machac, Djokovic appeared exhausted at times and needed a medical timeout.
He looked fresher against Machac’s compatriot, taking control of the opening two sets and stopping Lehecka from earning a break point for more than an hour and 40 minutes.When Lehecka broke back at the start of the third, an agitated Djokovic shouted towards his team – which includes his former rival Andy Murray – before complaining about noise from the stands while he was trying to serve.
But the seventh seed used the crowd to his advantage in the tie-break, conducting them after hitting a sublime backhand pass and cupping his ear after a deft volley brought up two match points.”When you are feeling adversity the last couple matches, I think I handled it well,” Only people who have been there at the highest level understand what you have to deal with.
There is a lot on the plate and you have to weather the storm when you are feeling challenged.”Elsewhere, second seed Alexander Zverev overcame a mid-match blip to move into the last eight with a 6-1 2-6 6-3 6-2 victory over France’s Ugo Humbert.
Zverev, a runner-up at last year’s Roland Garros and the 2020 US Open, has now reached the quarter-final of a Grand Slam on 14 occasions but he has yet to lift a maiden major trophy.
The German will face American 12th seed Tommy Paul, who needed just 87 minutes to wrap up a confident 6-1 6-1 6-1 win against Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.