By Nick Mulvenney
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Novak Djokovic was seriously rattled early on by inspired American teenager Nishesh Basavareddy but rallied for a 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-2 victory on Monday to keep his bid for an 11th Australian Open title alive into the second round.
The Serbian’s last loss in the first round of a Grand Slam came at the hands of Paul Goldstein at the 2006 Australian Open, only a few months after Basavareddy was born to Indian parents in southern California.
Goldstein went on to become Basavareddy’s head coach at Stanford University and for an hour it looked like the two Americans might well provide bookends to Djokovic’s extraordinary career at Melbourne Park.
Basavareddy, making his Grand Slam debut, made Djokovic look every one of his 37 years as he tore around Rod Laver Arena mixing clean winners with some beautifully deft drop shots.
The 19-year-old had the crowd on their feet when he broke for 4-3 in the first set with a sizzling backhand return, again when he fought off two break points to hold for 5-3, and a third time when Djokovic dumped a backhand into the net to cede the set.
The onslaught continued into the second set as Djokovic tried to reassert himself and it was not until the eighth game that the former world number one managed to convert his first break point of the contest.
Djokovic let out a huge roar as Basavareddy miscued the forehand that gave him the breakthrough and served out to level up the contest as the young American started cramping.
The seventh seed broke again to open the third set and although Basavareddy showed glimpses of the shot-making that won him the first set, Djokovic was now back in charge on the blue court where he has won 10 of his 24 Grand Slam titles.
Another huge roar came as Djokovic sealed the third set and he stopped off for a chat with one-time adversary Andy Murray in his coach’s box before breaking Basavareddy again at the start of the fourth.
Basavareddy was now exhausted by his Herculean early efforts and the roars from the other end continued as Djokovic drove home his dominance before wrapping up his 378th Grand Slam victory with his 23rd ace on his fourth match point.
“In the end it was great, but he was the better player for the first set and a half and he deserved every bit of applause he got as he left the court,” said Djokovic.
“This kind of match is always tricky, playing against someone who has nothing to lose. He handled himself really well and I’m sure we’ll see plenty of him in the future.”
Djokovic will face another relative youngster in 21-year-old Portuguese Jaime Faria in the second round, looking to take another step towards a 25th major title.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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