Australian Open 2014: Novak Djokovic eases past Leonardo Mayer

Novak Djokovic eased into the third round of the Australian Open after a straight sets victory over Leonardo Mayer on Wednesday.

The defending champion took one hour and 47 minutes to seal a 6-0 6-4 6-4 victory over the unseeded Argentinian in the sweltering Melbourne heat.

It was a better performance than the first round

Novak Djokovic

Djokovic has now won 23 successive matches at Australian Open, and the Serb felt that his performance was an improvement on his first-round victory.

“You don’t want to spend too much time in the heat,” said Djokovic, who will face Uzbekistani Denis Istomin in the third round.

“You want to try to win as quick as possible. He started to play better as the match progressed, in the second part, especially in the third set.

“But I felt like I was serving well and I was in control. When I needed to use my opportunities when they were presented, I did so. It was a better performance than the first round.”

Elsewhere, Florian Mayer sprung an upset against Russian Mikhail Youzhny, as the German beat the No14 seed 6-4 3-6 6-3 3-6 6-3 to set up a clash with 20th seed Jerzy Janowicz in the next round.

Twenty-third seed Ernests Gulbis suffered a premature exit from the year’s first Major, too, after a 2-6 3-6 4-6 loss to giant American Sam Querrey.

“That was one of my best serving days ever,” said Querrey. “And I felt like I returned very well. He has a huge serve. I felt like I did a good job of making him play on his service games.

“It’s one of my biggest wins in the past 12 months. It was overall a really solid match for me, the best I’ve felt in a long time. I just feel like I’m playing really well right now. I hope I can keep it up.”