The Australian Open is rapidly approaching, and many eyes will be on Novak Djokovic in Melbourne.
Djokovic is a 10-time Australian Open champion, and is eyeing a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam there next month.
Serbian veteran Djokovic is set to make his 81st Grand Slam appearance at the Australian Open, which takes place at Melbourne Park.
Djokovic has won the Australian Open more times than any other Grand Slam, with his 2012 final with Rafael Nadal having gone down as one of the greatest matches of all time.
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Novak Djokovic said he and Rafael Nadal would be in danger of time violations
Djokovic beat Nadal 5–7, 6–4, 6–2, 6–7(5–7) 7–5 after five hours and 53 minutes, with both players struggling to stay on their feet afterwards.
Intriguingly, ATP officials did their utmost to reduce the timing of matches at the start of the following season, adopting a strict stance when it came to time violations on serves.
Discussing how it would impact him, defending champion Djokovic said ahead of the 2013 Australian Open: “I guess Nadal and myself, we’re right up there mentioned in that topic as the players who would be always in danger of the time violation because of the time we are taking between the points.
“It is the way it is. I cannot have any complaints when I take more than 20 seconds between the points. If the chair umpire comes to me and said, ‘Listen, you should be a little bit more careful about it.’
“If I do it again, he gives me a warning, I can’t complain about it. It’s within the rules and I will respect it.”
Novak Djokovic not distracted by ATP rule talk at 2013 Australian Open
The chair umpires at that year’s Australian Open were keen on a more lenient approach, with complaints having arrived from players during the first two weeks of the season.
The rule involved ATP events having a 25-second limit in between points, with a 20-second ruling in place at Grand Slams.
As for the punishments, servers received warnings before being penalised with service faults for each subsequent violation.
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Djokovic clearly wasn’t too distracted by the issue or indeed any talk of it in 2013, with the Serbian winning a third title in a row.
He defeated Andy Murray in the final, with their ATP rival Nadal having withdrawn from the Grand Slam due to illness.
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