World number one Novak Djokovic continues his march towards an 18th Grand Slam when he takes on Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinal of the 2021 Australian Open on Tuesday, February 16, with the match likely to begin at around 11 am local time (12 noon BST or 7 pm Eastern Time previous day). Get the live streaming options of this Novak Djokovic v Alexander Zverev match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Novak Djokovic v Alexander Zverev Head to Head
There have been seven previous matches between these two players before this and Djokovic leads 5-2. Only one of these matches came at the Grand Slams, the 2019 French Open in which Djokovic won in straight sets.
They had recently met in the ATP Cup, earlier this year, which Djokovic had won in three sets.
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Djokovic Overcomes Injury, Raonic
Such was Djokovic’s injury in his third round encounter against Taylor Fritz, he admitted at the end of his fourth round match, it has been far from ideal and that he would have withdrawn from the competition had it not been for a Grand Slam.
And the effects of the injury were still visible in that previous win over Milos Raonic, who managed to take a set off the Serb. In the end, however, Djokovic still remained the better player and came through 7-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 to set up this quarterfinal match.
In a match that lasted less than three hours, which will be good news for the Serb, he failed to break his opponent in the first two sets of the encounter, starting the third set at one set apiece. However, as Raonic’s intensity dropped, Djokovic finally found a way to get the better of his serve, breaking him in the fourth game of the third set and then again in the sixth game to wrap up the third set.
And with the momentum in his favour, Djokovic then had a couple of breaking-points in the third game of the fourth, and three more in the ninth game as well, converting it off the fifth break-point before serving it out.
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Zverev Continues to Make Short Work
Since losing the first set of his first round match against Marcos Giron, Zverev hasn’t been tested too much. Sure, he was stretched to a second set tie-breaker in that very match but from there on it has been rather smooth sailing.
After Giron, Zverev went past Maxime Cressy and Adrian Mannarino in straight sets before overcoming Dusan Lajovic in his fourth round match on Sunday. Needing two hours and 24 minutes, Zverev hammered 15 aces and 44 winners in his 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3 win over Lajovic, having been stretched in the first two sets of the match.
In the first, Zverev dropped his serve early but came back to break Lajovic twice while in the second, he had a chance to serve it out at 6-5 but was broken again to take the set into a tie-breaker. It was in the third set when he finally managed to get and retain the first break of serve, carving out a relatively easy win in the end.
While Zverev would be confident from his performances so far and Djokovic’s fitness continues to remain monitored, it remains to be seen if he can push the world number 1.
Djokovic v Zverev Prediction and Tip
A Zverev win is relatively shorter at 13/8 than you would otherwise expect and that’s to do with his opponent’s injury. We think this could turn into a keen tussle that goes into the fourth or the fifth set.
Tip: Over 39.5 games in the match: 5/6 (bet365)
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The 2021 Australian Open will be played from February 8 to 21. You can watch & bet on the these matches here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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