MELBOURNE: Alexei Popyrin's electric play sparked hope for the home fans at the Rod Laver Arena. And as long as that floated around the capacity space, for almost two hours of the Australian Open second-round meeting, the raucous crowd revelled in it.
Then a section of the stands crossed the line and started heckling the world No.1 Novak Djokovic, even shouting between serves. That might've been the needle that burst Popyrin's bubble as the ten-time champion roared to a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 win.
The 24-year-old, a heavy server, who took a medical timeout earlier in the third set, had four set points at 4-5, 0-40 - an opportunity to take a two-sets-to-one lead, but Djokovic held and was all steel in the tiebreaker and thereafter.
Midway through fourth set, Djokovic turned to the crowd and expressed his displeasure. "Come and say that in my face," he beckoned a spectator.
"There were a lot of things that were being told to me on the court. 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," said Djokovic, who is clearly under the weather.
The 36-year-old, who sipped hot tea during his media interaction, said, "When you confront somebody, he didn't have the courage to come down. If you're such a tough man come down and tell it to my face. He was apologizing from far away."
Asked if the crowd behaviour had stoked a fire the Serb smiled. "Maybe that was what was needed," said Djokovic, who uncharacteristically had more unforced errors than winners in the match. "I was flat I guess emotionally. Game-wise I was quite flat for some part of the match, end of second set, most of the third set."
"Maybe that was needed to shake me up a bit so that I start to find the kind of intensity on the court that I needed to have all match," he said. Djokovic's celebration after closing out the 3-hour 11-minute match was animated. He turned to the gallery, shouted and punched the air.
In the third round the Serb will take on the 30th seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
In another late night match, Russian Elina Avanesyan put out the eighth-seeded Greek Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-4.
