{"id":48282,"date":"2026-01-24T13:30:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T13:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=48282"},"modified":"2026-01-24T13:30:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T13:30:55","slug":"cy4gwe4jrzpoat_mediumrssat_campaignrss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/01\/24\/cy4gwe4jrzpoat_mediumrssat_campaignrss\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Open 2026: Novak Djokovic through after default scare, Stan Wawrinka bids farewell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The incident happened after 10-time champion Djokovic, leading 6-3 4-2 at the time, saw a pacy return from world number 75 Van de Zandschulp go long for deuce.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In a split-second, Djokovic casually hooked the ball left.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I don&#8217;t even think he knew the ball kid was there. But it was three inches from getting defaulted,&#8221; said former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash, who was analysing the third-round match for BBC Radio 5 Live.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He&#8217;s hit that in an area where nine times out of 10 is probably a default. He&#8217;s managed somehow to sneak in between the ball kid and the spectators to the left.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In New York little over five years ago, it was a clear-cut case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Djokovic took a ball out of his pocket and hit it behind him, striking the female line judge in her throat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It was an infamous incident which the Serb swiftly apologised for, saying it had left him &#8220;really sad and empty&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Given he felt he needed to apologise again in Melbourne, many will question whether Djokovic has learned his lesson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He also fell awkwardly during the third set and, shortly afterwards, received treatment for a blister on his right foot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But ultimately Djokovic won in two hours and 44 minutes, keeping up his record of not yet dropping a set at this event, and a lighter workload could prove critical for his hopes of winning standalone record 25th Grand Slam singles title.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He will play Czech 16th seed Jakub Mensik in round four.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Australian #Open #Novak #Djokovic #default #scare #Stan #Wawrinka #bids #farewell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The incident happened after 10-time champion Djokovic, leading 6-3 4-2 at the time, saw a pacy return from world number&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48282"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48284,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48282\/revisions\/48284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}