The tennis calendar did not start in the best way for Novak Djokovic: lost in quarter finals of the ATP 250 de Brisbane against the American Reilly Opelkacurrently located in the 293 in the world ranking. The Serbian 37 years They fell 7-6 and 6-3 in a match that lasted more than an hour and a half.
After the United Cup for teams, the tournament in Brisbane – along with the 250 in Hong Kong – appears as the opening of the year’s grid at an individual level and as part of the preparation for the first big event of the season: the Australian Open which will take place during the second half of January.
Absentwhich had debuted with a victory against the local team Rinky Hijikata by double 6-3 and then chained a celebration against the Frenchman Gael Monfils For the same reason, he tripped against a player 27 years that came to be 17th on the planet at the beginning of 2022 but he has been out of the Top 100 since the beginning of 2023 and is only now reappearing after a difficult hip injury.
The former number 1 in the ranking today is located 7th in the world ranking led by the Italian Jannik Sinner after a 2024 season that saw him champion only in the Paris Olympic Gamesafter falling into the definitions of Wimbledon and the Masters 1000 in Shanghai.
Opelka, for his part, will play the semifinals against the Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the hope of reaching seventh final of his professional career, with the detail that his last time in a defining duel was in April 2022 when he won the fourth crown of his career at the ATP 250 in Houston. On the other side of the table they will meet the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov and the czech Jiří Lehecka.
The outstanding data in this confrontation against Absent is that the North American signed 16 acesa powerful game tool that it has thanks to its 2.11m. Opelka had a 77% success rate in the first service, but he also broke Djokovic’s serve to go 1-3 in the second set and put the celebration on track.
Beyond what happened in the singles, the pearl of this 2025 opening was that Djokovic shared the doubles in Brisbane with Nick Kyrgios: They fell 6-2, 3-6 and 10-8 in the second round against the Croatian Nikola Mektić and the New Zealander Michael Venus, the first seeds in the draw.
In the hours prior to this presentation, Djokovic had spoken with the ATP website about this tour of Australia with his sights set on obtaining the 11th trophy at the Australian Open, which in the last edition was in the hands of Sinner after beating Daniil Medvedev in the final.
“It is the first time that my family comes with me, my children, my wife (to Australia). If I have a game day, I spend the time preparing for that game. She has to take care of the children and she is here supporting me, trying to give me that love and that energy, along with the children, that I need to play my best tennis. So far it is working very well. I feel very good on the court. I’m playing very well. It allows me not to feel the guilt of being so far away for so long… This makes things a lot easier for me, coming home knowing that they will be there waiting for me. I am more motivated. I am also calmer, more serene. I spend a lot of quality time with them. It also allows me to not think about tennis 24/7, have time where I can release tension and be truly involved in your time.“, had said the Serbian who has accumulated 99 titles in his professional career.
Next week the international tennis calendar will have the ATP 250 in Adelaide (Australia) and Auckland (New Zealand) as a station prior to the start of the first Grand Slam of the season.
