Tuesday in Adelaide was under the sign of the first of Novak Djokovic in Australian main-stage after all the drama, which happened 12 months ago. It was not the first official match of Serbian though, while yesterday he paired with Vasek Pospisil in doubles tournament, but it not ended up with a win, as they lost the super-tiebreak against no-well known players Gonzalo Escobar and Tomislav Brkic. Today was another story, as multiple Grand Slam champion gave no chance for Constant Lestienne. The Frenchman was keeping decent level throught the whole match, but it was not enough for Djokovic, who dictated his terms breaking his opponent three times and facing just one breakpoint on his own on the road to confident straight-sets win. R16 will be another meeting with French player - this time Quentin Halys waits for Djokovic. Halys earned the centre-count appearance against Djokovic by winning 1R match with WC Jordan Thompson.
Another big name who officialy started his 2023 campaign was Daniil Medvedev. The Russian was facing Lorenzo Sonego. It was not a cakewalk for former world #1, as he needed to save as much as 9 breakpoints during the decisive phases of first set. Sonego did not capitalise any of those and set was decided by a tiebreak. It was a tight one, ended up with just one mini-break after 12 flawless serving points on both sides. Despite not being better side in this set, Medvedev held his nerves in crucial moments and run away with that.
Second set of the match started also pretty well for Italian, who kept his head down after dissappointing result of previous games. He broke Medvedev in first game, but did not confirm it, losing his own serve in another one. The match which turned into really exciting battle ended up prematurely, when Sonego retired after third game of 2nd set, reporting the arm injury. Really gutting end of the duel which was far from being resolved. Medvedev - wishing his opponent a speedy recovery in a post-match interview - waits for his R16 match against Miomir Kecmanovic now.
There were also more exciting matches ended up in deciders today. Denis Shapovalov was one set down against home player Rinky HIjikata, but denied the possible upset with a dominant game in remaining two sets. Roberto Bautista Agut made a classy comeback against Andrey Rublev, being down set and break on the scoreline after 11 games. Then, he started overplaying the top 10 opponent, achieving two breaks and making it into decider. The third set was a high quality play on a serve. Both Spaniard and Russian created exactly one breakpoint for themselves, but it was Bautista Agut who converted his chance and arrived into R16. He will face Sebastian Korda then, who crashed Andy Murray out of the tournament with 7-6 6-3 win.
