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Novak Djokovic will look to continue his return to the top of the sport in the second round of the Australian Open when he takes on excitement machine Gael Monfils. Join The Roar for live scores from around 2:30pm (AEDT).
In truth, this is a battle between two players who had a woeful back end of 2017 for different reasons and are looking to improve, making it back to the top of the sport.
Djokovic had well-documented issues with health during 2017. He retired from the quarter-finals in Wimbledon against Tomas Berdych and didn’t play another match until the Australian Open.
His elbow issues have caused a new service action to be developed, while all the lost ranking points means he comes into the first grand slam of the year as the 14th seed.
If he can recapture the form he had during 2015 and 2016, that ranking won’t remain so low for long. He was regularly the first seed during that period and even leading up to his injury was still in the top four.
Still, getting back to that level with an abbreviated service action and having to do things the hard way against tougher opponents early in tournaments will be a battle.
He has liked the match-up with Monfils throughout his career, winning 15 of their 16 matches including on four occasions at grand slam tournaments.
While Monfils hasn’t had much fun playing the Djoker, he will be reasonably confident of being able to pull off an upset here.
Like Djokovic, his ranking at the end of last year fell away dismally and it’s lead to him not being seeded for the Australian Open after being so for most grand slams in the last few years.
While that’s set up this huge early round match-up, Monfils’ form returning from a less lengthy injury lay-off has been superb.
He retired in the US Open last year and ended his season, but came back through Doha to start his 2018 season, only dropping two sets throughout the tournament and beating promising young Russian Andrey Rublev in the final.
It was a superb effort from Monfils who was at his entertaining best and if he can keep that form up, he will give himself every chance against Djokovic.
Prediction
Djokovic should win, but he won’t have this all his own way. It will be a fight and Djokovic will need to rely on his trademark defence and court coverage skills. The real test will be to play five sets when he hasn’t done so since Wimbledon last year and it’ll give us a good look at his conditioning.
Djokovic in five sets
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of this second round match at the Australian Open from around 2:30pm (AEDT) and don’t forget to add a comment below.