Djokovic survives marathon scare
World number one Novak Djokovic kept his hopes of a third successive Australian Open title alive with an extraordinary defeat of Stanislas Wawrinka.
Djokovic came through 1-6 7-5 6-4 6-7 (5/7) 12-10 in five hours and two minutes of absorbing tennis against an opponent who was inspired.
Having withstood an early Wawrinka barrage it seemed the momentum had turned in the Serbian’s favour when he claimed sets two and three.
But back came Wawrinka to win the fourth in an epic tie-break to take it to a decider which could have gone either way until Djokovic finally made the breakthrough with the match finishing at 1.43am local time.
“It’s really hard to find the words to describe the feeling we had tonight, especially in the fifth set,” said Djokovic.
“He equally deserved to be a winner of this match. I give him a lot of credit, he has my respect. He showed his quality and was the aggressive player on the court.”
