Novak Djokovic out in the sun as No.1 seed relegated from prime time showing

Australian Open organisers have rebuffed 10-time champion Novak Djokovic’s plea to return to his favoured prime-time night slot on Rod Laver Arena.

The Serbian legend sent a statement to tournament director Craig Tiley on Sunday after his fourth-round match with Adrian Mannarino was relegated to the afternoon to accommodate Australian Alex de Minaur’s match against Russian Andrey Rublev.

Djokovic served up a rare “double bagel” to the French journeyman on his way to a 6-0 6-0 6-3 demolition and wasn’t even pretending to hide his preference for the night slot.

“It’s no secret I love to play at 7pm,” he said after his run of 15 straight night matches in Melbourne came to an end.

But the king of Melbourne Park’s push to return to prime time has fallen on deaf ears, with his quarter-final clash with American Taylor Fritz on Tuesday scheduled second-up in the afternoon.

Already the men’s grand slam record-holder, Djokovic will surpass Australian Margaret Court’s all-time mark of 24 if he claims an 11th Australian Open title on Sunday.

But the 36-year-old has no plans to retire any time soon, even if he clinches an unprecedented 25th slam.

“While being No.1 and still on top of the game, I don’t feel like leaving tennis in that position,” Djokovic said ahead of a record-equalling 58th grand slam quarter-final.

“I feel like I want to keep on going.”

Organisers have instead opted to give top billing on Tuesday night to Italian fourth seed Jannik Sinner and Rublev, who will be trying to avoid a 10th consecutive grand slam quarter-final defeat.

The 26-year-old Russian lost to Sinner - the only man through to the last eight in Melbourne yet to drop a set - in both their meetings last year.

In the women’s draw, American No.4 seed and 2023 US Open champion Coco Gauff will lead off quarter-final action on Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday against unseeded Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk.

The 2024 Australian Open is Gauff’s last major as a teenager and she has dropped just 16 games in her first four matches.

The winner is likely to catch Belarusian world No.2 Aryna Sabalenka in the semis, but the defending champion must first navigate a tricky encounter with 2021 French Open winner Barbora Krejcikova.