Novak in way of youngsters

Super Serb ready to rock young champs as the 10-time Oz Open winner will test the Next Gen once again Down Under

- Rutvick Mehta

Novak Djokovic is having a ball at Melbourne Park. He's playing exhibition doubles against coach Andy Murray, goofing around in the locker room with Carlos Alcaraz, and turning journalist for Alexander Zverev's press conference. This 24-time Grand Slam winning reporter was granted a question. Fine, a follow-up too.

And so, after a query about Zverev's love and curiosity for space, Djokovic pressed further on whether the answer to the German winning a Grand Slam lay in space. "The answer to winning a Grand Slam is you letting me win one," the world No.2 shot back.

For a large part of the last decade-and-a-half, that statement, said more in jest, held true. Certainly at the Australian Open. Last year, when Djokovic was kept at bay in Australia by Jannik Sinner and away from any Slam all year round by younger hopefuls, has however forced a tweak.

The question now isn't so much about whether he can let the others have one; it's about whether he can get one back in a territory he has ruled 10 times over. Sinner and Alcaraz were out to get him in 2024; he's out to get them in 2025. The hunted has become the hunter.

'Fresh' season

And that, after years of unrelenting uniformity by the Big Three club in which Djokovic was the last entrant, gives this new season and the opening Grand Slam in Melbourne such a fresh feel.