{"id":22762,"date":"2026-01-22T15:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T13:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/djokovic-eases-past-qualifier-as-keys-books-third-round-berth\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:33:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:33:40","slug":"djokovic-eases-past-qualifier-as-keys-books-third-round-berth","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/djokovic-eases-past-qualifier-as-keys-books-third-round-berth\/","title":{"rendered":"Djokovic eases past qualifier as Keys books third round berth"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\">Novak Djokovic brushed aside Italian qualifier Francesco Maestrelli 6-3 6-2 6-2 on Thursday to reach the Australian Open third round, as women&#8217;s champion Madison Keys overcame a second-set wobble against Ashlyn Krueger to also advance.<br \/>\nFourth seed Djokovic, seeking a record-extending 11th Melbourne Park title and 25th Grand Slam trophy overall to break the deadlock with Margaret Court, maintained his steady grip on the second-round clash without needing to shift into top gear.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;I didn&#8217;t know much about him (Maestrelli) until a few days ago, it happens more often than not these days,&#8221; Djokovic said about his 23-year-old opponent.<\/div>\n<div>&#8220;But the respect is always there and I didn&#8217;t underestimate him. He&#8217;s got a big serve and a big game, only lacking a bit of experience. He&#8217;s got the game to go far and high in the world rankings and I wish him that.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Djokovic, 38, raced through the opening set and pounced again in the opening game of the second set to heap pressure on world number 141 Maestrelli.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">The win was Djokovic&#8217;s 399th Grand Slam match victory, and his 101st in Melbourne, leaving him one shy of record\u2011holder Roger Federer. Djokovic will next meet Botic van de Zandschulp.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14875,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-22762","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25953,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22762\/revisions\/25953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}