Aus Open: Hard fought win for Djokovic

Novak Djokovic was forced to dig deep as he battled past Alexei Popyrin 6-3 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 to reach the third round of the Australian Open in which he challenged a heckler to “come down and tell it to my face!”. Djokovic appeared to have a problem with his wrist, an issue he came into the tournament with, and has also been ill but he kept his winning streak at the Australian Open alive, having not lost in Melbourne since 2018. At one point during the fourth set of a testy win the world No 1 challenged a heckler to “say that to my face”. Speaking about the confrontation, the 36-year-old said: “There was a lot of things that were being told to me on the court, particularly from that corner, and the same side the other corner. I was tolerating it for most of the match. At one point I had enough, and I asked him whether he wants to come down and tell it to my face. “When you confront somebody, unfortunately for him, he didn’t have the courage to come down. That’s what I was asking him. If you have courage, if you’re such a tough man, tough guy, come down and tell it to my face, and let’s have a discussion about it.”