“It was like playing myself in the mirror,” the 24-time grand slam champion said after beating the 18-year-old qualifier. Naturally, Novak Djokovic was full of praise for the teenager who had just dragged him through the longest first-round match of his grand slam career, an absorbing 6-2 6-7 (5) 6-3 6-4 battle over four hours and one minute against the previously unknown Dino Prizmic. In Djokovic’s eyes, it signalled the arrival of a new star. You have to go back to January 2006 for the last time Djokovic lost a first-round match at a grand slam. If Prizmic had barely been alive for six months then, the Croatian briefly threatened to end a streak that is almost as old as he is.
There was a sense that this historic first opening Sunday at the Australian Open lacked a little intrigue when the order of play was released, given that defending champions Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka were drawn against 18-year-old qualifiers who were without a single previous grand slam appearance to their names. Late into the Melbourne night, Sabalenka showed why that was the case with her ruthless destruction of Germany’s Ella Seidel, who struggled from the start and then became completely overwhelmed by the occasion. Sabalenka won 6-0 6-1 in less than an hour and it was barely a contest.
