Novak Djokovic made a lightning-fast start to his bid for a record-extending 10th Australian Open title on Tuesday, when the Serbian cruised past Roberto Carballes Baena 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 on Rod Laver Arena.

Playing his first match at Melbourne Park for two years, Djokovic maintained a high level throughout to claim a comfortable win despite an admirable effort from the World No. 75 Carballes Baena. The fourth seed converted five of nine break points to seal a two-hour, two-minute triumph and book a second-round meeting with Hugo Dellien or qualifier Enzo Couacaud.

“I really feel very happy that I’m back in Australia, back here on the court where I had the biggest success in my career,” said Djokovic, who has now won 22 consecutive matches on Rod Laver Arena since 2019. “This court is the most special court in my life, and I couldn’t ask for a better start to the tournament.

“I guess the more you win on a certain court, the more confident and comfortable you feel every next time you step on it. That’s probably one of the reasons. I’ve been fortunate to win a lot of matches on this court, particularly in the night sessions. If I had to choose one court and conditions, it would be night session on Rod Laver Arena, all night long.”

The win extended Djokovic’s winning streak on Australian soil to 35. Should the 35-year-old lift the trophy in Melbourne this fortnight, he will equal Rafael Nadal’s record tally of 22 Grand Slam crowns, while a 10th Melbourne triumph would also see Djokovic return to No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time since last June.

More to follow…

One year after making his first Grand Slam fourth round at the Australian Open, Taylor Fritz made a strong start to his 2023 Melbourne campaign with a 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 win against Nikoloz Basilashvili on Tuesday.

Fritz, who also reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals last season, fired 32 aces in the victory as he progressed to the second round for the fifth straight year in Melbourne. He won 84 per cent of his first-serve points in the match.

Playing in his first Grand Slam as a Top 10 player, the 2022 Nitto ATP Finals semi-finalist was down an early break before play was suspended to close the roof in John Cain Arena. From 2-4 in the opening set, the eighth-seeded American won four games to take command.

“It gave me a chacce to regroup a little bit,” he said of the delay. “I came out, it’s the first match, first Slam of the year, it’s my first time being a Top 8 seed. I came out a little nervous but kind of regrouped. I felt like maybe closing the roof wasn’t the best for me because I wanted it to be a little bit faster on the court. I felt like it slowed everything down.

“I did a good job regrouping, just relaxing a bit and just playing a lot more solid.”

FOUR. STRAIGHT. ACES.@Taylor_Fritz97 · @wwos · @espn · @wowowtennis · @eurosport · #AusOpen · #AO2023 pic.twitter.com/visGp9koLP

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 17, 2023

Fritz again used a late surge to take the second set, ripping through four games for 2-2, but he could not recover from dropping serve in the opening game of set three. He did not face a break point in the fourth, and he ultimately closed out the match with his fifth break of the two hour, 24 minute contest.

After a breakthrough 2022 season in which he won his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells — and a title-winning start to the new year with Team USA at the United Cup — Fritz is looking forward to more big moments this season.

“I don’t want to put too many high expectations, but I do expect lot of myself,” he said in his on-court interview. “I’m in a really good spot right now, I’ve been playing really well. I’ve had a great start to the year so I’m looking to have a big week this week.”

The 25-year-old will face either Chun-Hsin Tseng or Aussie wild card Alexei Popyrin on Thursday in the second round.

Editor’s Note: This article was translated from ATPTour.com/es.

A tennis player’s most feared adversary is perhaps one that never wields a racquet. Injuries are the most unpredictable blight any sportsman can suffer throughout his career, and Matteo Berrettini has recently had first-hand experience of them.

In 2022, the Italian underwent wrist surgery, fought COVID-19 and recovered from a problem with his left foot. Berrettini was sidelined from the ATP Tour for several months.

However, the current No. 14 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings has been working hard to return this season with a vengeance. One of the professionals that has helped him with his recovery, physiotherapist Ramon Punzano, revealed to ATPTour.com details of the last year, his relationship with Berrettini, and the strengths that have made him one of the best players in the world.

Ramon Punzano (far right) celebrates with Team Italy at the 2023 United Cup. Credit: Tennis Australia

“Players fear not being able to return to their previous level. It generates a slight air of tension, concern, it’s not an optimistic environment, that’s normal,” explained Punzano. “From a personal and professional point of view, you’re trying to bring calm to the situation, you try to be as positive as possible in moments of adversity.”

Early in 2022, Berrettini arrived in Melbourne and romped to the semi-finals of the Australian Open. Following that run, he reached a career-high No. 6 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. When the Italian was in the form of his life, a wrist injury forced him to go under the knife, shortly after Indian Wells in March.

“It was a tough blow,” Punzano admitted. “The recovery was better than expected and even I was a little surprised at how we progressed so quickly, but the injury dictates how quickly you can go. You have to listen to it, and if it lets you, you have to accelerate as quickly as possible.”

The Italian and his team shifted their sights  to the grass-court swing. In 2021, he was a finalist at Wimbledon (l. Novak Djokovic), meaning he would have to defend a significant haul of points this past summer. The Boss Open, which is held in Stuttgart, Germany, staged Berrettini’s return to the court in June.

“We managed a good start to the grass swing. In Stuttgart he won, and also at Queen’s. We were very confident of doing well at Wimbledon, like the previous year, but COVID-19 sidelined him,” Punzano said. “In September he picked up a foot problem, which meant he missed several tournaments and was unable to play until the doubles in the Davis Cup Finals.”

Despite reaching the final in Gstaad and the quarter-finals at the US Open, the lack of continuity ruined a great season for Berrettini, every time he was able to take to the court. “It was a bittersweet season, with some great moments and other very tough ones. Of the years I’ve been with Matteo, it was the most difficult. It was very up and down,” Punzano said.

Punzano joined the Italian’s team at the end of 2019. The Valencian specialist had previously worked with ATP stars such as Juan Carlos Ferrero, David Ferrer, Pablo Andujar and also as a physio at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, the old Valencia Open, and the Davis Cup Finals.

In more than three years of working together, the Spaniard has had plenty of time to get to know one of the best players on the ATP Tour during that time. What has surprised him most about Berrettini?

“In terms of sport, having seen and worked with all kinds of players, Matteo has something that characterises the greats a winning mentality,” Punzano answered without hesitation. “Believing that he can win any match, that he has the weapons to beat any opponent and to really feel that inside.”

Off the court, Berrettini has a series of virtues that, in some way, also help him to be stronger with a racquet in hand. “He’s a pretty empathetic person,” explained Punzano. “He is always thinking of others. He understands that if we are all happy and comfortable in our work, it will make us give our all for him.

“He’s also a humble guy. He accepts the opinions and criticisms of the members of the team in order to try and keep improving. He doesn’t think he’s always right, he has a great capacity for reasoning. He likes and needs to understand why he does things, what the reason and criteria are for working on a certain thing. When he understands it and considers that he needs to work in a different way, he accepts that.”

Matteo Berrettini greets fans in Brisbane at the 2023 United Cup. Credit: Tennis Australia

Those virtues have been fundamental in dealing with the age-old foe of injuries.“Thanks to that humility and mental strength, we’ve been able to handle it as well as possible,” Punzano said. “Even though it’s not nice for anyone. For the player or the staff. They are tough moments in which you have to do a lot of work behind the scenes with the uncertainty of injuries.”

Punzano has provided one of the lifelines that the Italian has clung onto in order to stay afloat in stormy waters. “When a great player is injured and they know they will miss a certain number of weeks, of course initially they are in a state of pseudo-depression,” Punzano said.

“You have to try to help them through that situation, explain to them how things will progress, help them understand the problem. That relieves their anxiety and they start to see the future with more optimism,” Punzano revealed. “But you have to get your head down and work hard, because there’s nobody to praise you. There are no spectators, no fans, none of that. It’s not a situation where you’re going to get much support. You really have to trust your team, and just think about the fact that the only way forward is hard work and daily recovery.

“As soon as the player sees what you have explained to them, they start to produce, they change a lot and relax. What was previously an act of faith, now starts to become reality. That gives them a lot of optimism,” Punzano shared of the period which the Italian hopes to have seen the back of.

Early in this new season, Berrettini has already played a starring role in the United Cup, helping Italy reach the final of the first edition of the mixed-teams event.

“We’re optimistic and excited and we are confident he can recover and return to his previous level,” Punzano concluded.

Two wins over Top-10 opponents, such as No. 3 Casper Ruud and No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz —as well as a close three-set defeat to No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas— have brightened the light at the end of the tunnel. Berrettini is once again feeling competitive against the best in the world.

It was a French affair on the ATP Tour and Challenger Tour this week. And Arthur Fils was following the results of his countrymen Arthur Cazaux and Richard Gasquet, who were competing for titles on the other side of the world.

Set to play in his first Challenger final in Oeiras, the 18-year-old Fils had seen the results from Cazaux, who won the Nonthaburi Challenger on Saturday and Tour-veteran Gasquet, who collected the title at the ATP 250 in Auckland. He used that as inspiration to claim a title of his own in Portugal.

“I saw Luca [Van Assche] win the Maia Challenger not that long ago, I saw that overnight Arthur Cazaux did it, I saw that Richard Gasquet did it today. I said, ‘Okay you have to win this one!’” Fils said, while cracking a laugh during his post-match press conference.

Fils, who enjoyed a standout junior career, hopes to be part of France’s next crop of great players. In 2021, he was a finalist at the Roland Garros boys’ singles event, only losing to countryman Luca Van Assche, who earned his maiden Challenger title in December. That same year, Fils teamed with close friend Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard to capture the Roland Garros boys’ doubles crown.

Following his triumph in Portugal, Fils joined an exclusive list of French Challenger champions aged 18 and under: Gasquet, Sebastien Grosjean, Gael Monfils, Fabrice Santoro, Corentin Moutet, and Van Assche. Now at a career-high 195 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, Fils is the first teenage Challenger champion of 2023 and the youngest French player in the Top 200.

After dropping just one set all week at the indoor hard court event, including ousting top seed Ricardas Berankis, the French teen was asked what he will remember most about this week in Oeiras. Fils joked, “I will remember that I lost one set and it was 0-6! But no, I will remember the final and the great atmosphere.”

It’s been nearly 40 years since a Frenchman won a Grand Slam (Yannick Noah, 1983 Roland Garros). While the European country has had many consistent professionals since, Fils is hoping the four-decade drought doesn’t last much longer.

“It was tough for Tsonga, Monfils, and Gasquet because they came in the same generation as Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic, they won everything,” Fils said. “Maybe when Nadal and Djokovic retire, we will have more opportunities to win a Grand Slam.”

Perhaps the next great French tennis champion is currently making progress on the Challenger Tour.