“They play their lights-out tennis” – Djokovic on young players’ challenge

Novak Djokovic said he was tested by 21-year-old Portuguese qualifier Jaime Faria in their second-round meeting at the Australian Open – and reflected afterwards on the challenges that young players now present.

“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, centre court, maybe their first-ever centre court match in any Grand Slam, and they just come out firing, have basically nothing to lose,” he said in his press conference after his four-set win.

“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 centre 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.”

“Faria was a big test”

Now aged 37, the Serb needed four sets to defeat Faria, just as he had against 19-year-old Nishesh Basavareddy in the first round, and he added: “Another big test. Another three-hour match, back to back against the youngsters.

“Congratulations to him [Faria] for a great battle. He’s really a good player that has a lot of potential as [has] my first-round opponent.”

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