In his confident appearance, Alexei Popyrin is going into his Australian Open second-round encounter against Novak Djokovic with the belief that he has what it takes to trouble the 24-time Grand Slam champion.
After defeating Dino Prizmic in a four-set encounter, Djokovic advanced to the second round. The Serbian acknowledged that the Croatian had made things difficult for him and expressed relief that he would have two days off to recover before the next round.
Popyrin said when asked about his approach to taking on Djokovic: “I don’t want to go in there just thinking, ‘Oh, he’s probably the greatest of all time and all that’. I admire what he’s done. He is probably the greatest of all time. But there is no point going into court if I don’t believe that I can win.”
He added: “I need to have that confidence going in and the belief going in that I can win the match and that he is just the world No. 1, and he is just another player for me on the opposite side of the net. I need to focus on what I have to do on the court. I have big weapons in my game that I believe can do some damage. I’ll do my homework like I always do before matches. Going to play against Novak Djokovic is nothing different than going to play against anybody else on tour. For me, it’s the same preparation; it’s the same mentality.”
Before this competition, Popyrin had only faced Djokovic once. The pair played in Tokyo in 2019 and Djokovic came out on top, 6-4, 6-2.
Aus Open: Alexei Popyrin to face Novak Djokovic in second round
Popyrin: “I admire what he’s done – he probably is the greatest of all time, but for me I need to have that confidence going in and the belief knowing that I can win the match"https://t.co/Tli6aV8xVu @newscomauHQ— C Kristjánsdóttir ●🐊 (@CristinaNcl) January 15, 2024
Popyrin at the Australian Open, ranking, and results in 2024
Ranked world no.43, Popyrin has achieved a compiled 2-1 match record in 2024. The Australian is competing at the Australian Open where he toppled the world no.154 Marc Polmans 6-3 7-63 6-2.
Alexei Popyrin will square off with the world no.1 Novak Djokovic in the 2nd round. Their actual head to head record is 1-0 for Djokovic.
Djokovic at the Australian Open, ranking, and results in 2024
LWWWWWWWWL Now the world no.1, Novak owns a compiled 3-1 match record in 2024. Djokovic is competing at the Australian Open where he beat the world no.187 Dino Prizmic 6-2 6-75 6-3 6-4.
Novak Djokovic will play the world no.43 Alexei Popyrin in the 2nd round. Their actual record is 1-0 for Djokovic.
Novak won 98 titles in his career: 52 on hard courts, 19 on clay courts, 19 on indoor courts and 8 on grass courts. (See the list of his titles)
He is also scheduled to play at the Wimbledon (Wimbledon) on the 1st of July and U.S. Open (U.S. Open) on the 26th of August.
Alexei Popyrin and Novak Djokovic clashed against each other only once. Their record is 1-0 for Djokovic. When they played, Novak Djokovic won 6-4 6-2 in the 1st round in Tokyo (Rakuten Japan Open) in October 2019.
You can watch the highlights in the following video.
