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Novak Djokovic beats Shapovalov after nervous match

Novak beats Denis after a strange match. He will face Medvedev in the 4th round.

19 January 2019

Novak Djokovic beats Denis Shapovalov in the 3rd round after a rather weird contest on Saturday at the Australian Open.

The Match

It was all clear from the very beginning that the world no.1 was too good for the upcoming Canadian especially after Djokovic conquered a strong 4-1 lead (2-breaks-up) in the opening set. Shapovalov was set to play extremely aggressively to often lose his shots and he was paying the price for that. The Canadian was particularly weak on his returns as he tried to attack them with too much impetuous. Suddenly, Denis got 1 break back (4-2), but it was too late to drop his serve again in the 9th game (6-3).

After winning the 1set, Djokovic was just sailing to grab a strong 6-3 6-4 4-1 lead (2-breaks-up) in a match that was rather mediocre especially for the fact that Shapovalov was committing a massive amount of unforced errors. All of the sudden, Djokovic lost his focus to lose 5 consecutive games (???) and bring the match to the 4th set.

Eventually, Shapovalov was far too flimsy for the world no.1 that found his groove immediately to win the match 6-3 6-4 4-6 6-0.

Novak will face Daniil Medvedev in the 4th round.

I got agitated. DJOKOVIC

After the match, Nole commented

“For the first two sets, I just had things under control. At 4-1, I was agitated. It should not happen to me. I know better. I have experience. But it does happen, I guess. I allowed him to come back to the match.”