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(Reuters = Yonhap News)
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Dong-chan = Novak Djokovic (4th place, Serbia) got off to a good start toward winning his 25th singles title in a major tennis tournament.
Djokovic easily defeated Pedro Martinez (71st place, Spain) 3-0 (6-3 6-2 6-2) in the first round of men’s singles on the second day of the Australian Open tennis tournament (total prize money of 111.5 million Australian dollars, about 110 billion won) held in Melbourne, Australia on the 19th.
Djokovic, who has won 24 major singles championships and shares the record with Margaret Court (retired, Australia), will attempt to win his 25th title in this tournament.
Djokovic has been particularly strong in this tournament, winning 10 of the 24 major championships in the Australian Open alone.
Djokovic’s last Australian Open win was in 2023, and his last major championship was the 2023 US Open.
Djokovic’s opponent in the second round is Francesco Maestrelli (141st place, Italy).
If Djokovic continues to win, there is a high possibility that he will meet Jannik Sinner (2nd place, Italy) in the semifinals.
Sinner, who won this competition for the last two years in a row, will face Hugo Gaston (93rd, France) in the first round on the 20th.
Djokovic achieved his 100th win at the Australian Open with this victory.
The Australian Open men’s singles record for most wins is Roger Federer (retired, Switzerland) with 102 wins.
Djokovic also surpassed 100 wins at the French Open (101 wins) and Wimbledon (102 wins), becoming the first player to surpass 100 wins in three of the four major tournaments.
He has 95 wins at the US Open.
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(EPA=Yonhap News)
Stan Wawrinka (139th, Switzerland), who announced his retirement at the end of this season, defeated Laszlo Djere (92nd, Serbia) 3-1 (5-7 6-3 6-4 7-6<7-4>).
Wawrinka, who won the 2014 Australian Open, 2015 French Open, and 2016 US Open, was born in 1985 and is two years older than Djokovic.
Another veteran, Marin Cilic (70th place, Croatia), born in 1988, also defeated Daniel Altmaier (44th place, Germany) 3-0 (6-0 6-0 7-6 <7-3>).
Wawrinka will face Arthur Gea (198th, France) and Cilic will face Denis Shapovalov (23rd, Canada) in the second round each.
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(EPA=Yonhap News)
In the women’s singles, Yiga Sibion Tech (2nd place, Poland) defeated Yuan Yue (130th place, China) 2-0 (7-6<7-5> 6-3) and advanced to the second round.
If Civil Tech wins this tournament, it will achieve the ‘Career Grand Slam’ of winning all four major tournaments.
His best performance at the Australian Open is the semifinals in 2022 and 2025.
Sibion Tech will face Marie Bozkova (44th, Czech Republic) in the second round. As for the head-to-head record between Sibion Tech and Bozkova, Sibion Tech is ahead with 2 wins.
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Sent on January 19, 2026 at 22:07
