First he takes your mic, then he takes your job.
The on-court interview that followed Novak Djokovic’s latest Australian Open victory did almost as much to explain the 36-year-old’s continued stranglehold on the men’s game as the 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Taylor Fritz that preceded it.
No sooner had the Rod Laver Arena crowd been treated, if that is the right word, to the singular sight of Nick Kyrgios emerging to conduct the post-match pleasantries, than Djokovic asserted himself. “I need a mic, thanks man,” he said, relieving Kyrgios of his microphone and, in an instant, realising a cherished dream of chair umpires the length and breadth of the tennis world by rendering the Australian bad boy temporarily silent.
“Good to see you man,” said Djokovic, who will face Jannik Sinner, a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 winner over Andrey Rublev, in the semi-finals. “Looking good in that booth, but looking better here, hopefully with a racket also soon. We miss Nick. Come on guys, show him some love.”
As a wave of applause broke out, and Kyrgios shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, you half wondered whether we would hear from the 28-year-old Canberran again. He was eventually furnished with a mic of his own, but not before Djokovic – who earlier blew a mid-match kiss to Kyrgios as the injured star watched from a courtside commentary booth – had stolen the show. Whether wielding a racket or a microphone, the Serbian world No 1 remains the sport’s alpha male.
After a typically incisive appraisal of how he had subdued Fritz despite an unusually poor conversion rate on break points – Djokovic capitalised on just four of 21 but, as he reflected, “managed to break him when it mattered” – the Serb promised he would introduce Kyrgios to the much-discussed tree in Melbourne’s royal botanical gardens that he says makes him feel “grounded”.
“What you’ve got to do is take off your shoes, climb the tree [to] the highest point, and hang upside down, on one of the highest branches, for 33 minutes and three seconds,” the 24-time grand slam champion told Kyrgios. “Then you’re going to win a slam.”
He might as well have been addressing the entire locker room. Over the past 10 days, Djokovic has struggled with a wrist injury, a viral ailment and some recalcitrant opponents, of whom Fritz was the latest. Nothing has seriously threatened to derail his bid for an 11th title at Melbourne Park, and in all likelihood nothing will.
Fritz, seeded 12th and able to draw confidence from the experience of pushing Djokovic to five sets in Rod Laver Arena three years ago – which is more than most can say, even if the Serb did suffer a mid-match abdominal injury – brought plenty to the party. He slammed a mighty 63 winners. He saved eight break points in the first set and seven in the second. And in sweltering conditions, he forced Djokovic to run and run.
But when the American fired down an ace to level at a set apiece, Djokovic changed gears, regaining the lead with a near-perfect 38-minute passage in which he hit 14 winners while making just one mistake. Despite an exchange of breaks midway through the fourth, the pressure on Fritz remained unrelenting, the outcome effectively sealed when the Californian double-faulted to drop serve for a second time.
“He’s so fast, he doesn’t really miss a lot of balls,” said Fritz. “He definitely makes you really work and hit quality shots to win points. It’s also just the lack of free points he gives you.
“I never just hit a second serve and he just misses it. That just doesn’t happen. Even when I’m going after my second serve hitting second serves that are consistently like 100, 105 miles per hour, jamming him, he still just puts it on the baseline.
“It’s definitely tough when you don’t get those free points and you have to work for every single point.”
Fritz is not the first to feel that unrelenting pressure. Djokovic has now won 33 straight matches at the Australian Open, equalling a record held by Monica Seles. This was also his 15th grand slam win over a top-20 player since turning 35, eclipsing a mark previously shared with Roger Federer.
The Serb has had to work harder than usual over the first five rounds – the 15 hours and nine minutes he has spent on court so far is a personal record – but he will have two days to rest before facing Sinner. Few would be surprised if the tournament culminates with the Serb eclipsing all-comers for a 25th time.