AO Day 8 - The real Novak Djokovic is here - good luck everyone
The Tennis Podcast
David Law
4.5 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2023
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Moments after Novak Djokovic produced a masterclass and gave us all an early night, we headed to Garden Square to record the Day 8 pod. We discuss just how good that performance was from Djokovic and what it might mean for the rest of the tournament, Andrey Rublev's nail-biting victory over Holger Rune and what it told us about both players, and our interactions with Ben Shelton and why we think he's such good news for the sport. In the women's draw, we focus on Aryna Sabalenka's statement performance to beat Belinda Bencic, the way in which Magda Linette exposed Caroline Garcia's lack of a Plan B, and more success for the Donna Vekic-Pam Shriver partnership.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Billie Jean King. This is Mary and Bartoli. I'm Matt's Belander. This is Mary Carillo. |
| 0:05.3 | This is Pam Shriver. This is Yannick Noah and you're listening to the tennis podcast. |
| 0:20.4 | Well greetings from Garden Square Melbourne Park just in front of the Rodlava Arena. The time |
| 0:28.0 | is 10 a.m. The fountain is trickling behind me. The big screen is still going because there is |
| 0:35.1 | doubles action, 25% of it featuring a sensation on the Rodlava Arena, but singles action is finished |
| 0:42.9 | for the night and the reason we are here so early, also not quite as late as usual, is because |
| 0:50.3 | Novak Djokovic, the nine-time champion, has just beaten not sensation Alex Demenor for the loss of |
| 0:57.4 | just five games. Two of those games were getting him to two all and from two all, Novak Djokovic just |
| 1:07.5 | went into a different mode, a quite terrifying mode. I mean he's just described it as his best match |
| 1:15.2 | of the year. I mean by some distance he was fearsome tonight. It was pretty much a perfect |
| 1:23.6 | performance David. You watched the whole thing from the best seat in the house on the baseline |
| 1:29.6 | at times just a few feet away from the nine-time champion. How good was he? |
| 1:34.6 | Yeah that's as good as tennis gets in my estimation. I've seen it a few times from Djokovic in |
| 1:41.9 | that commentary box actually. My mind goes back to him playing Roger Federitt in a much hyped semi-final |
| 1:48.9 | about seven years ago and you know I was part of the hype. You know Federitt Djokovic all the |
| 1:55.3 | rest of it but it was when Djokovic was at his absolute peak in the first of his big peaks |
| 2:00.8 | or maybe second of his big peaks. I suppose you'd say that 40-something match run in 2011 or |
| 2:06.0 | 12 or whenever it was as part of that but he came out and he just destroyed Federitt for two sets |
| 2:10.8 | for about the loss of three games and it was just as though he'd come out not just to win but to just |
| 2:18.0 | destroy and send a message and tonight for whatever reason maybe it's just how he felt |
| 2:23.8 | spinning the zone maybe there was more to it he came out to seek and destroy his opponent |
| 2:30.8 | and even in those first four games that's what he was trying to do. I could see it in his eyes. |
... |
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