Djokovic's Hard-Fought Australian Open Win Marks His First-Ever Four-Hour First Round

| by Zachary Wimer

Novak Djokovic has played plenty of tough matches in his career, but he didn't have to play a four-hour first-round match before this year's Australian Open.

As one of the best players in history, Djokovic played plenty of matches and quite a few of them were complicated and long. It's not something he's not used to but even so, he never struggled that much to begin events.

With the way tennis draws work, the first matches at an event generally feature opposition that is easier to overcome for seeded players, and that's been the case for Djokovic for the majority of his career.

For example, he's had several first-round matches at Grand Slams that went over three hours, and he's won most of those. Beating Djokovic in such a long format is pretty tough because he's very physically fit, but also, it's hard to keep level high enough for that long for many lower-ranked players.

In any case, Djokovic never went over four hours in the first round of any event, but obviously, particularly in Grand Slam tournaments, a four-hour match in a best-of-three format is almost impossible until this year's Australian Open.

Djokovic Survives In His Longest-Ever First-Round Grand Slam Match At Australian Open
Djokovic Survives In His Longest-Ever First-Round Grand Slam Match At Australian Open

He faced Croatian qualifier Dino Prizmic in the opening round, and while many believed it would be a quick affair, it wasn't. Not even remotely close as the teenager put up a great fight and pushed Djokovic to four sets and the clock to 4 hours and 1 minute.

That's the amount of time Djokovic spent on the court in a first-round match, and it's the first time one of his first-round matches hit 4 hours. There is actually an interesting stat about that because he never won a Grand Slam if the first-round match went over 3 hours.

He played three-hour first-round matches several times, but all of those happened over a decade ago, as his last over three-hour first-round win came at the 2010 US Open over compatriot Victor Troicki, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.

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