Djokovic
Serbia's Novak Djokovic stretches to hit a shot during his third round match against Italy's Andreas Seppi at the Australian Open tennis tournament at Melbourne Park, Australia, January 22, 2016. Reuters/Jason O'Brien TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Novak Djokovic continues his hot streak at the 2016 Australian open in Melbourne after holding off Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-1 7-5 7-6(6) to setup a fourth round clash with Gilles Simon of France.

Djokovic, who was at the centre of controversy earlier this week over a widespread tennis match-fixing controversy, made sure he would not fall victim to Seppi in a tournament filled with stunning victories. The world No. 1 had an easy work in the first set, but had to dig deep to finish off the Italian in a match that lasted for two hours and 21 minutes.

"I think I served my way out of trouble several times,” Djokovic said, reports the ATP’s official website. “But certainly I must be pleased with a straight-sets win because both sets, especially the third, could have gone a different way.”

In 11 meetings, Djokovic only lost to Simon once eight years ago at The Open 13 in Marseille and leads their head-to-head meeting by 10-1, winning the last nine matches. A victory for Djokovic would mean a semifinal clash with career rival Roger Federer, if both players get past their adversaries in the fourth round.

However, the 14 th seed Frenchman believes he could be a trouble for Djokovic after dominating Argentina's Federico Delbonis 6-3 6-2 6-1 in what Simon called a “perfect” performance.

“Novak is the clear favourite in that match, he is playing amazingly everywhere in attack, defensively, so you don’t have much space to work with,” Simon said, reports the Australian Open’s official website. “But I can be a real pain too, so let’s see what happens.”

Meanwhile, WTA’s world No. 1 Serena Williams also reached the round of 16 after cruising past Russian teenager Daria Kasatkina 6-1 6-1 in 44 minutes. The 21-time Grand Slam winner, who is looking to tie Steffi Graf's record of 22 major titles, will face another Russian in Margarita Gasparyan, who defeated Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva 6-3 6-4.

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