The main culprit for the over-run was not so much Djokovic as Coco Gauff, who had needed 3hr 8min to subdue Marta Kostyuk in the day session’s first match. But the organisers were asking for trouble by opening the schedule at 1pm, rather than Wednesday’s start time of 12 noon – a decision which may well have been made at the request of US broadcasters ESPN.
Djokovic was probably happy to be delayed until 4.43pm for the first point of this match, because it was a warm day in Melbourne, and Fritz played an extremely high level of tennis.
As Djokovic said in his on-court interview – which was unexpectedly hosted by 2022’s Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios – “He was suffocating me from the back of the court. I was always on the back foot. Thankfully, I managed to break him when it mattered in the third and fourth sets.”
Fritz put up a strong fight, saving the first 15 break points he faced. This is believed to be a unique feat against Djokovic, the world’s most skillful returner.
Three of these came in an opening game that lasted a marathon 16 minutes and 25 seconds, featuring nine deuces. That set the tone for an 84-minute opening set, which Djokovic won on a tie-break, only to dip in intensity thereafter.
On a humid evening, both men looked to be moving in slow motion for a while, but their shots remained laser-like in their accuracy. Then, after Fritz levelled at one set all after almost two-and-a-half hours of combat, Djokovic stepped up his intensity. His statistics in the third set – 14 clean winners and just a single unforced error – were otherworldly.