{"id":417413,"date":"2026-01-19T21:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/417413\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T21:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:27:08","slug":"djokovic-wins-opening-match-against-martinez-at-australian-open-tennis-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/417413\/","title":{"rendered":"Djokovic wins opening match against Martinez at Australian Open | Tennis News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic begins his hunt for \u200da record \u200d25th Grand Slam title with a straight-sets victory against Pedro Martinez.<\/p>\n

Published On 19 Jan 202619 Jan 2026<\/p>\n

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Novak Djokovic has embarked on his latest quest to win a record 25th Grand Slam by easing to an ominous straight-sets victory at the Australian Open in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

The Serb dismissed Spain\u2019s Pedro Martinez 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 on Monday in two hours and is to meet Italian qualifier Francesco Maestrelli in the second round.<\/p>\n

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It was his 100th Australian Open victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat to be back once again, definitely my favourite court,\u201d the smiling 38-year-old said at Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cCenturion is pretty nice. I always give my best on the court. History-making is a great motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI am blessed to be still playing at this level.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former world number one raced into a 3-0 first-set lead as Serbian fans serenaded their hero.<\/p>\n

Djokovic, now ranked fourth in the world, pulled out of a warm-up event this month, saying he was not physically ready.<\/p>\n

His last competitive match was in early November as he tries to limit the wear and tear on his creaking body.<\/p>\n

But he showed no signs of discomfort or rustiness in moving freely around the Melbourne Park hard court to seal the first set with minimum fuss.<\/p>\n

He broke the 71st-ranked Martinez\u2019s serve early in the second set and was hardly troubled on his own serve to take a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n

The third set went much the same way, the only moment of concern for Djokovic fans coming when he stretched out his right hamstring between games.<\/p>\n

\"NovakDjokovic is seeking a record 25th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open [Tingshu Wang\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

Djokovic will need to gatecrash the duopoly of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner if he is to break a tie with Margaret Court and win an all-out record 25th major.<\/p>\n

Sinner is the two-time defending Australian Open champion and along with Alcaraz has dominated the majors in the past two years.<\/p>\n

Djokovic has been stuck on 24 major titles since winning the US Open in 2023.<\/p>\n

He reached the last four in Melbourne a year ago but retired from his match against Alexander Zverev with injury.<\/p>\n

He did make history in another way on Monday in his 81st Grand Slam appearance, equalling the all-time record men\u2019s singles appearances with old rival Roger Federer and Feliciano Lopez.<\/p>\n

\"DjokovicDjokovic dropped only eight games against unseeded Martinez on January 19, 2026 [Tingshu Wang\/Reuters]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic begins his hunt for \u200da record \u200d25th Grand Slam title with a straight-sets victory against Pedro…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[1204,1246,3,1079,99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-417413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-asia-pacific","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-sport","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417413","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=417413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}