He might have tasted defeat on his Grand Slam debut but Nishesh Basavareddy has earned a lot of new admirers after a four-set loss at the hands of Novak Djokovic.
The 24-time Grand Slam winner was stunned in the first set, dropping it 6-4 after being broken by the American. He recovered, however, to win the next three 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.
John McEnroe has been discussing Djokovic ahead of this tournament. The fact he’s working with Andy Murray as his coach is intriguing and many pundits have been predicting whether he can win the Australian Open this time around.
Although it was Djokovic who came through in Melbourne on Monday, the talk was about his opponent. Basavareddy played some excellent tennis and didn’t look overawed to be playing such a legend of the game.