The 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic moved past Swiss legend Roger Federer to claim the all-time record for most major singles matches played among men and women by contesting in his 430th Grand Slam singles match.
The 10-time Australian Open winner battled past 21-year-old qualifier Jaime Faria 6-1, 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-2 on Wednesday moving past Federer's tally of 429.
The Serb is through to the third round of the season's first major for the 17th time in 20 appearances to continue his quest for a 25th major singles title and 100th tour-level crown.
I felt like I performed really well throughout, maybe especially in the third and obviously fourth set when closing out the match. He did play some fabulous stuff at the very end of that second set leading into the beginning of the third. I got to weather some of that stuff. He served two firsts for most the match.
It's not easy to play someone like that who doesn't have obviously anything to lose coming out. He's a big guy, very young, so I told him at the net, the future is bright for him, he should keep going," Djokovic was quoted saying by ATP website.
Next for Djokovic will be a third-round clash with 26th-seeded Czech Tomas Machac, who defeated Reilly Opelka 3-6, 7-6(1), 6-7(5), 7-6(4), 6-4 earlier on Wednesday. The two players have divided their two prior Lexus ATP Head-to-Head encounters in 2023 and 2024, with Machac coming out on top of their most recent encounter in last year's Geneva semi-finals.
He would become the oldest player in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam title-a record currently owned by Ken Rosewall, who took the 1972 Australian Open title at the age of 37 years and 62 days. Djokovic will be 37 years and 249 days old by the end of this Melbourne fortnight.
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