MELBOURNE.— Novak Djokovic overcame an early jolt to remain in the hunt for a record 25th Grand Slam title while his two young rivals Jannik Sinner and Jannik Sinner Jannik Sinner moved into the Australian Open second round with more emphatic victories on Monday.
An ailing Nick Kyrgios was unable to avoid falling through the trapdoor on his return to his home major, although the maverick Australian went down fighting like 2023 runner-up StefanosTsitsipas on a blockbuster second day at the year’s opening major.
Naomi Osaka prevented a repeat of her 2024 first-round loss to Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia as the twice Melbourne Park champion prevailed 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to close out the action on the main show courts.
The evening session began with a scare for Djokovic before the Serb beat American teenager NisheshBasavareddy 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to keep his quest for an 11th Australian Open title alive .
“I was impressed by him,” Djokovic said.
“The whole stadium was. That’s why he got a great round of applause and appreciation from the crowd. They saw what he did on court, the quality of tennis, the fighting spirit.
“I ended the match in good fashion. I think it’s important. It counts mentally for me, for the rest of the tournament.”
While Djokovic went to war at Rod Laver Arena, Alcaraz was cruising to a 6-1, 7-5, 6-1 victory over unseeded Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko on Margaret Court Arena, but the decision to schedule three marquee matches at the same time raised eyebrows.
Adding to the overlap of big-ticket matches was Kyrgios, whose first appearance in Melbourne Park in three years due to injury ended in a 7-6(3), 6-3, 7-6(2) defeat by Jacob Fearnley.
Defeat cast doubt on Kyrgios’ return to the tournament as a singles player and he did not sound optimistic.
“It’s hard,” said Kyrgios, who dealt with knee, foot and wrist issues before sustaining an abdominal injury last month.
“When you’re competing for the biggest tournaments in the world and you’re struggling to win sets physically, it’s pretty tough. But I’ve still got a long year ahead.”
Sinner, who has come under attack over the last few months from the outspoken Kyrgios over his two positive drug tests in March, began his title defense in bright sunshine with a win over Nicolas Jarry.
While the balmy weather was welcome after persistent rain chopped six hours of play out of the outer court schedule on day one but the dark cloud of doping refused to budge.
Jarry served an 11-month ban in 2020 after testing positive for ligandrol and stanozolol. The International Tennis Federation accepted his explanation that two banned substances were in his urine sample via vitamins made in Brazil and ruled that Jarry “bore no significant fault or negligence for his violation”.
The big-serving Chilean contrasted his treatment with Sinner’s avoidance of a suspension for failing his tests last year, after losing 7-6(2),7-6(5), 6-1 to the Italian.
