A shocking loss for Djokovic
Six-time champ at Australian Open loses in five sets to Istomin, ranked 117th in world.
The defending champion is bounced in the second round by Denis Istomin, a wild-card entrant.
MELBOURNE, Australia — It started badly for Novak Djokovic, who needed 24 serves, six break-point saves and 15 minutes just to hold his first game in the second round.
This was not the close-toinvincible Djokovic that fans were used to seeing at the Australian Open, where he has won a record-equaling six titles, including five in the previous six years.
In his earliest loss at a Grand Slam tournament since 2008, Djokovic lost, 7-6 (8), 5-7, 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4, on Thursday to No. 117-ranked Denis Istomin, a 30-year-old wild-card entry from Uzbekistan.
“All the credit to Denis for playing amazing. He deserves to win,” Djokovic said of their four-hour, 48-minute match. “He was the better player in the clutch moments. Obviously, I was not pleased with my performance overall, but I have to congratulate my opponent. Whenever he needed, he came up with a big serve, big play.”
Djokovic hadn’t dropped a set to Istomin in six previous matches. But he lost the 85-minute first set in a tiebreaker and then seemed to get the momentum back, only for Istomin to finish stronger.
Istomin’s only previous win in 33 matches against top-10 players was in 2012 versus then-No. 5 David Ferrer.
“It is the biggest win for me. It means so much,” Istomin said. “Now I feel I can play with these guys, and to be with them on the same level.”
Serena Williams, who like Djokovic was ranked No. 2 and is a six-time Australian Open champion, kept her chase for an Open-era record 23rd major title on track with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Lucie Safarova in the second round.
In third-round matches Friday, Angelique Kerber had a straight-sets win for the first time in her first Australian Open title defense, starting her 6-0, 6-4 victory with an eight-game streak against Kristyna Pliskova. Kerber will next play 35thranked CoCo Vandeweghe, who reached the fourth round in Australia for the first time with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win over 2014 semifinalist Eugenie Bouchard.
Vandeweghe recovered from an early break in the third set in a tense win over Bouchard, who was ranked as high as No. 5 in 2014.
Eighth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova was broken in the second and third sets when serving for the match before finally beating Jelena Jankovic, 6-4, 5-7, 9-7.
She will next play No. 24 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who beat No. 11 Elina Svitolina, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.
Andy Murray, ranked No. 1 in the world and the top seed on the men’s side, defeated Sam Querrey, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4, to the reach the fourth round.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga took out Jack Sock, 7-6 (4), 7-5, 6-7 (8), 6-3.
Stan Wawrinka, seeded fourth, defeated Viktor Troicki, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (7).