‘Worried’ Djokovic through as second seeds Ruud, Jabeur bow out

MELBOURNE— Injury-hampered Novak Djokovic moved into the third round of the Australian Open on Thursday as the path to a 22nd Grand Slam title opened up for him with the premature exit of second seed Casper Ruud.

Ruud’s second-round exit came a day after Djokovic’s great rival Rafa Nadal, the top seed, had been evicted after suffering a hip flexor injury that will sideline him for up to two months.

Nine-times Melbourne Park champion Djokovic was delayed only slightly by an inspired second set from French qualifier Enzo Couacaud in his 6-1 6-7(5) 6-2 6-0 victory but was troubled by his heavily-strapped left thigh.

With world number one Carlos Alcaraz absent injured, Djokovic will fear few opponents on the blue courts where he is unbeaten since 2018 but only if his hamstring holds out.

“I have to take it dayby-day. I am worried. I cannot say that I’m not. I have reason to be worried,” said the Serbian.

“My physio and medical team have been doing everything possible so that I can be able to play every match. There’s not much more to talk about. There’s two choices: leave it or keep going. So I’m going to keep going.”

Women’s second seed Ons Jabeur also departed after an error-strewn performance against former French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova, but there were wins for title contenders Aryna Sabalenka, Caroline Garcia and Belinda Bencic.

Ruud was simply outplayed for all but a few games of his 6-3 7-5 6-7(4) 6-2 loss to 22-yearold Brooksby over nearly four hours on Rod Laver Arena.

“I didn’t feel like I played particularly bad,” said Ruud. “He just ended up winning many of the longer rallies and had sort of an answer to all the questions that I asked him.”

Brooksby’s win was followed by lucky loser Michael Mmoh stunning German former world number two Alexander Zverev 6-7(1) 6-4 6-3 6-2 to make it eight American men in the third round.