AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 15, 2025

Novak Djokovic

Press Conference

N. DJOKOVIC/J. Faria

6-1, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Novak, another history made for you today. You have the 430th match for you at the Grand Slam singles match, all-time record for men's and women's players. How satisfied are you about the win today?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, I'm satisfied with the win. I really like the way I started the match and finished the match. The first and fourth set were the best. I was in control with a break up in the second, then dropped my level. Lost four games in a row. Managed to get back to the tiebreak.

He was the better player. I think he was firing from all cylinders. At one point he was difficult to play against because he was practically serving two first serves and going for his shots. Logically he was pumped when he won the second set.

I feel like I managed to focus in the important moments and make that crucial break at 3-2 in the third. From that moment onwards, I feel like I upped my game a bit and played a really good, good fourth set.

Overall another big test. Another three-hour match, back to back against the youngsters. Congratulations to him for a great battle. He's really a good player that has a lot of potential as my first-round opponent.

As for the history, of course, as I said on the court, this sport has always been giving me so much in my life, an opportunity to play at the Grand Slams. I try not to take it for granted after great achievements that I'm very proud of.

Of course, Grand Slam matches and Grand Slam wins are what counts the most in our sport. Of course, I'm very thrilled with that.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. As you said, this is your second straight match against one of these young people at the start of their careers. Do they present something different these days than a player at that stage in his career than, say, five years ago in terms of the style they're playing, what their approach is, in terms of what they bring at you?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Comparing to?

Q. A player who was 20, 21 starting out.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: In my time?

Q. Well, in your time or even just five years ago.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Hard to say. I mean, the first-round opponent is built differently. He's not as physically tall or strong as my second-round opponent, which makes a big difference in terms of the speed of the serve.

Today's opponent, he was serving, I mean, big, big serves. Also, his second serve, he is going pretty much for every second serve. That is the difference between the two guys.

But from back of the court, maybe I'll give a slightly more credit or quality to my first-round opponent. He's really quick, takes the ball on the rise.

Also, today's opponent, in the moments when I allowed him to have time and to pressure me, he was doing that. Particularly in the second set, he was really going for his shots. At one point he was making everything from baseline, serves, returns.

So obviously we all know this. I mean, I've had plenty of matches in my career, particularly in the last five, seven, eight years where I'll play opponents that I've never faced before, center court, maybe their first-ever center court match in any Grand Slam, and they just come out firing, have basically nothing to lose.

It's always tricky to play these kind of opponents, mentally to sustain that level. Obviously you don't know whether they're maybe going to fold under the pressure of playing on the center court or they're actually going to go the different way, which I think both of my opponents in first and second round did, which I feed off that energy and just, like, play their lights-out tennis.

As I said, a great test for me. Yeah, I wish maybe I stayed a set less on the court today. Again, I'm happy with the way I ended up the match. Good fashion, good mindset. Yeah, looking forward to the next one.

Q. You said before the tournament you were keen on the idea of having coaches on the court, in the box. I think Boris wasn't in there. How do you go through choosing the four people to have in there? At the moment, there's no microphone there, so you can't hear on broadcast what's being said. Would you have a feeling one way or the other if they started mic'ing up that area?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I'm still supportive of that. I think it's a great new introduction to the tournament. The selected people who are there are selected by all of us internally in the team. We talk about who we think can contribute the most by being on the court.

I'm happy with the four people that I have there sitting. It probably will change in the future with the microphone and everything. I'm happy as it is at the moment, to be honest with you (laughter). I'm sure for the fans watching, social media, it would be very interesting to hear what we are talking about.

The only thing there, I mean, I understand from kind of, like, fun part and stuff going viral, because there will be quite a bit of material there, I'm sure.

The only thing that I dislike there is the fact that someone from your opponent's team might be watching the match, and she or he hears that and, of course, then texts the team member. 10 seconds later you have the information. That's the part that I don't like.

So I feel like there should be some discretion and privacy in terms of the actual on-court coaching tactics. That shouldn't be out there public, I would say, because then it kind of endangers you live during the match.

Q. Going back to young players, did you watch any of Fonseca against Rublev last night? Have you seen much of him and what you think of him as an 18-year-old?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I just met him first time, like, literally five minutes before I came into the room. I congratulated him not only on the win last night that I've seen, the last set I've seen, but also everything he has been doing the last six to 12 months.

I've been following his rise, and I just love how he plays the big points. Courageous, very clean hitter, all-around player.

Brazil is a huge country. Super important for our sport to have a very good player coming from Brazil. I think they haven't had a player maybe of that caliber since Guga Kuerten. It's exciting times for Brazil, but also for the whole tennis world 'cause such a young player and person to be able to play so good on a big stage is impressive.

I've been a fan of his game. I've been watching him also last year. I think in one of my interviews for ATP I was saying I see some of my game there in his game, particularly when I was his age when you're kind of carelessly going for the shots, just showing what you're capable of.

I mean, he's got the goods definitely. He showed that last night on a big stage to go very far. Future is bright for him, no doubt, if he keeps going this way.

Q. When you're playing an opponent for the first time, obviously your team would do lots of research.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Right.

Q. How much time do you personally spend learning about your opponent and what they bring and what their preferences are?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, I do it together with my coach. I mean, with Andy here, Andy has been spending quite a bit of time watching videos. He watched live my first match, but then he watched the replay of the entire match the next morning.

He's really dedicated, and I love that because when you watch the match from a different perspective, you watch the replay, you can maybe see things that you haven't seen in the heat of the battle.

That's what we talk about, some of the elements and cues that he might see or I might see when I watch myself. I don't see the entire match like him, but I see the highlights and certain moments where I feel like I was maybe off balance or I should have played better or moments where I played really well, what I did well.

Then we take those informations on the practice court. That's what we're going to do tomorrow, as well. So we communicate quite a lot actually about tactics, about preparation, analysis.

I like data. I like video, particularly visual preparation with the video analysis. He does that, too. I mean, at least what he told me throughout his career. We're matching pretty well there. We speak the same language, so to say. We understand each other very well.

We had to do more I think work in terms of the first preparation, analysis preparation, for the first two guys that I faced here because there were not too many matches of them. Very young. We had to really also talk to people in the locker room that played them and so forth to try to get as much information as possible.

Obviously as the tournament progresses, you know the names better, like my next opponent. It would be easier to find material on them to prepare.