Australian Open qualifiers day one results, Adelaide International 2 updates, Hobart International news, Novak Djokovic

An outrageous statistic has highlighted Novak Djokovic’s nerves of steel after he won the Adelaide International title on Sunday night.

The Serbian superstar fought off match and championship point at 5-6 down in the second set of his 6-7 (8), 7-6 (3), 6-4 win over unseeded American Sebastian Korda.

According to tennis pundit Bastien Fachan, it was the 48th match point saved in Djokovic’s illustrious career, dating back to 2005 when he saved six against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Djokovic was fully stretched by the 22-year-old Korda, son of 1998 Australian Open champion Petr Korda.

Djokovic held serve to love in his first four service games of the final set and then held serve after being taken to deuce by Korda in his fifth service game.

Djokovic then rallied from 15-40 down at 5-4 in Korda’s next service game to win four straight points and take the match.

“I hope everyone enjoyed the show tonight, it’s been an amazing week,” Djokovic said.

“Seb’s had an amazing tournament and put in an amazing effort today.

“I think he was closer to victory at times today than I was. It was only a couple of shots, a couple of points.”

Djokovic at times showed irritation with his coach Goran Ivanisevic who supported him from a courtside box or remonstrated with himself after a wasted point.

“I’d like to thank my team for handling me, tolerating me in the good and bad times today. I’m sure they didn’t have such a blast with me going back and forth with them but I appreciate them being here.”

His serve was reliable at the start of the first set and he didn’t concede a point on first serve until Korda broke him to lead 5-4.

Djokovic immediately broke back and took the set to a tiebreaker.

Korda had an early lead and five set points but Djokovic saved them all and levelled the tiebreaker at 6-6.

Djokovic framed a forehand that sailed into the crowd and gave Korda another advantage, allowing the American to take the tiebreaker 10-8.

Djokovic saved a match point at 5-6 on serve in the second set, then forced the set into another tiebreaker that he took comfortably.

Korda produced some outstanding service games and troubled Djokovic at times with the kick of his serve.

But he was broken for only the second time in the match in the 10th game of the deciding set, with only a couple of points making the difference.