Daniil Medvedev makes Novak Djokovic comment after Russian crashes out of Australian Open | Tennis | Sport

Daniil Medvedev has compared Sebastian Korda to Novak Djokovic after crashing out of the Australian Open at the third round stage on Friday. The Russian, who reached the Melbourne final in 2021 and 2022, was dispatched by Korda in straight sets after being outplayed from start to finish.

“The most difficult [thing] is that he hits very strong the ball,” Medvedev explained after his defeat. “Probably one of the strongest hitters. Also takes it very early. There are some other guys playing like this, but they miss more than him. And he didn’t miss that much.

“His game, yeah, kind of different from everybody because very aggressive and very early he takes the ball. A little bit maybe like Novak. But, yeah, well, not every player is capable of doing that – so that’s beautiful and that.”

Medvedev was under pressure from the outset against his American opponent and was broken in his first service game. Korda went on to break the world No 7’s serve on four more occasions throughout the showdown and held his nerve in two tiebreaks to win the match 7-6 6-3 7-6.

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“Actually, when he was missing, I kind of took my opportunities I feel like. I don’t feel like there were a lot of missed opportunities, and that’s why I’m saying in general it’s not like this point I had to do better, that point I had to serve better. I just had to be better in average on the whole level of the match, which I didn’t manage to do.”

Following the showdown, Korda has been tipped to challenge for the Australian Open title. But Djokovic is still the overwhelming favourite to win the tournament for a 10th time as he looks to draw level with Rafael Nadal’s record 22 Grand Slam title successes.