Jan 19, 2026, 09:06 AM ET<\/p>\n
Novak Djokovic<\/a> equaled two all-time tennis records by starting his 21st Australian Open, and he added another milestone Monday night with his 100th win at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n He liked the sound of it.<\/p>\n “I mean, what can I say? I like the sound of it — centurion is pretty nice,” the 24-time major winner said after his 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 first-round win over Pedro Martinez<\/a> of Spain. “Nice feeling.”<\/p>\n Djokovic, 38, is now 100-10 at the Australian Open, where he has won 10 titles. He also has won 102 at Wimbledon and 101 at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n What he really wants more than anything is six more in the next two weeks, enough to win a 25th major and become the most decorated tennis player of all time.<\/p>\n By starting his 21st Australian Open campaign, he equaled the tournament record held by Roger Federer<\/a>. By starting his 81st Grand Slam tournament, he equaled another record that Federer shared with Feliciano L\u00f3pez<\/a>.<\/p>\n “History-making is a great motivation,” he said.<\/p>\n Djokovic showed signs of vintage form, with a running crosscourt forehand winner in the first set taking the adoring crowd at Rod Laver Arena back to his prime.<\/p>\n He didn’t face a breakpoint in a clean serving performance, had a 1st serve points won percentage of 93, and he fired 14 aces, including one on match point.<\/p>\n “Tonight’s performance was definitely great. Can’t complain,” he said, adding that the commanding victory was “sending the right signal, not just to yourself but to all your opponents.”<\/p>\n Djokovic didn’t play any warmup tournaments, saving himself for the big occasion in a bid to win a major title that has eluded him since 2023.<\/p>\n “I’m using every hour that I can to get my body recovered and in shape for the next challenge,” he said.<\/p>\n He reached the semifinals at all four majors in 2025 but couldn’t break the stranglehold that Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> and Jannik Sinner<\/a> have had on the biggest trophies in the sport for the last two years.<\/p>\n Also Monday, Stan Wawrinka<\/a> kicked off his farewell season at the Slams with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) win over Laslo Djere<\/a>. The 2014 champion announced last month that 2026 will be his last year on the elite tour.<\/p>\n “It is my last year. It’s been too long that I’m coming back!” he said. “The passion is still intact. Today was amazing. I’m so happy that I won — I have a chance to play one more here.”<\/p>\n Three-time Australian Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev<\/a> beat Jesper de Jong<\/a> 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (2) to advance along with No. 6 Alex de Minaur<\/a>, No. 12 Casper Ruud<\/a>, No. 13 Andrey Rublev<\/a>, No. 19 seed Tommy Paul<\/a> and Reilly Opelka<\/a>.<\/p>\n A combined total of 101,696 fans flocked to Melbourne Park on Monday, surpassing the tournament daily record of 100,763 set on Sunday.<\/p>\n Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan 19, 2026, 09:06 AM ET Novak Djokovic equaled two all-time tennis records by starting his 21st Australian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-417059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}