Novak Djokovic brushed past Yoshihito Nishioka to reach the Australian Open fourth round on Friday. The Serbian superstar produced a brilliant performance to crush Nishioka 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena.
Djokovic, a 16-time Srand Slam champion, incredibly lost just eight points on serve during his victory, which came after 85 minutes. A record seven-time winner in Melbourne, Djokovic set up a clash with Diego Schwartzman in the fourth round.
Djokovic – who thrashed Nishioka at last year's Davis Cup Finals – made a fast start, racing into a 3-0 lead that would prove decisive in the first set.
Nishioka sent a backhand long to fall behind immediately in the second set and Djokovic was in complete command throughout, particularly on serve.
Djokovic incredibly lost just one point on serve through the opening two sets, left untroubled by Nishioka. He broke to love to begin the third set and opened up a 4-0 lead on his way to a convincing win.
The 16-time grand slam winner feels that his service game will hold him in good stead.
"You can always improve. I think that's the beauty of the sport. I think in terms of service rhythm that I have at the moment, winning percentage from the first serves is really high," Djokovic told a news conference.
"That's probably as best as my serve can actually be in the moment, which I'm very pleased with. It allows me to go quicker through my games and win more dominantly my service games and put additional pressure on the service games of my opponents.
"That's definitely something that's useful going towards the second week of the grand slam."
Djokovic also mixed 40 winners with 23 unforced errors against Nishioka, setting up a fourth-round clash with Diego Schwartzman.
A seven-time champion in Melbourne, Djokovic said he was satisfied with where his game at.
"From back of the court, I have been playing pretty well, both forehand, backhand side. Very solid backhand, forehand today a lot of winners, not too many unforced errors," he said.
"That's kind of a game style that I would like to maintain and kind of nurture for the second week.
"Obviously I ended up this tournament last year with two fantastic performances against [Lucas] Pouille in the semis and Rafa [Nadal] in the finals. Those were some of the best performances I had ever in the grand slam semis and finals.
"I love playing on the court. I like the conditions. I'm starting to feel very, very comfortable and compact on the court. I'm going to try to keep that going."
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