{"id":429360,"date":"2026-01-22T06:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T06:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/429360\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T06:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T06:17:09","slug":"novak-djokovic-v-francesco-maestrelli-taylah-preston-v-linda-noskova-maddison-inglis-v-laura-siegemund-stefanos-tsitsipas-v-tomas-machac-day-5-scores-draw-players-tips-matches-how-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/429360\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic v Francesco Maestrelli, Taylah Preston v Linda Noskov\u00e1, Maddison Inglis v Laura Siegemund, Stefanos Tsitsipas v Tom\u00e1\u0161 Mach\u00e1\u010d day 5 scores, draw, players, tips, matches, how to watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was the day the Maestrelli met the maestro. Or the maestro dealt with the Maestrelli.<\/p>\n

The Italian Francesco Maestrelli confronted the maestro of Melbourne, Novak Djokovic, the man who has won 10 titles here. It finished as you might expect when a qualifier meets a player who has won more slams than anyone: in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.<\/p>\n

\"Novak<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic in full flight.Credit: Chris Hopkins<\/p>\n

More importantly for Djokovic, who is now due to play on Saturday in the forecast baking heat of 40 degrees, the straight-sets win in mild conditions was done in just two hours and 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

If anyone knows how hot a 40-degree day will make centre court on Saturday, it is Djokovic. They are unenviable conditions.<\/p>\n

Djokovic didn\u2019t know anything about Maestrelli\u2019s game until 48 hours ago, when he was drawn to play him.<\/p>\n

They had never played one another so he had to Google him to find out more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happens more often than not for me these days. I don\u2019t underestimate anyone, he has got a big serve, a big game,\u201d Djokovic said.<\/p>\n

Djokovic didn\u2019t have to get out of second gear for the match, but had flickers of brilliance and ingenuity.<\/p>\n

\"Djokovic<\/p>\n

Djokovic and Maestrelli in a friendly embrace post-match.Credit: AP<\/p>\n

When running back to fetch a lob, he played a blind, behind-your-back shot. That wordy description doesn\u2019t do it justice, but it was inventive, and it went in \u2013 he just didn\u2019t win the point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have got to bring some variety in the game. It\u2019s been too long playing on tour,\u201d he said on court. \u201cI am glad I didn\u2019t embarrass myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

He admitted other players used the shot more often and more successfully. They also use the \u201ctweener\u201d, a shot that Djokovic said he could have used in this instance, but had decided to remove from his repertoire after some painful misadventures attempting it in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI almost hurt myself,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This was the day the Maestrelli met the maestro. Or the maestro dealt with the Maestrelli. The Italian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-429360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}