Djokovic squeezes through

He may be a former champion in Melbourne, but Novak Djokovic continued to play like anything but one yesterday against lesser known Marco Chiudinelli.

Serbia's Novak Djokovic reacts after winning a point against Switzerland's Marco Chiudinelli.

He may be a former champion in Melbourne, but Novak Djokovic continued to play like anything but one yesterday as he was far from his best and forced to scrap to secure a second-round win over Marco Chiudinelli. The 2008 winner was slow out of the blocks as he lost the first set to his Swiss opponent, but found his range to sweep through the next two sets. Chuidinelli pushed the Serbian hard in the fourth set but the third seed prevailed to go through 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 and set up a third-round tie with Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin. Djokovic admitted he was not satisfied with his form, particularly early in the match. "I was frustrated, especially at the start of the match, because he was really giving it to me. "He was very aggressive and stepping in and using ever opportunity that has been given to him," he said.

"So automatically I just became too defensive and didn't really make too much. Just waiting for his mistakes. That was a little issue there, but I managed to make that transition from being defensive to being offensive and changing pace and holding the game in control in the second and third set." World No 1 Roger Federer showed glimpses of his best form as he proved far too strong for Romania's Victor Hanescu 6-2, 6-3, 6-2, while sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko only dropped six games in his comprehensive demolition of Illya Marchenko. The surprise of the day was the defeat of 17th seed David Ferrer by Marcos Baghdatis. The Spaniard won the opening two sets, but was powerless to prevent Baghdatis, who reached the final in Melbourne in 2006, from fighting back to win 4-6, 3-6, 7-6, 6-3, 6-1. He plays another former finalist, Australian Lleyton Hewitt, tomorrow with the incentive of a possible last 16 showdown with Federer in store for the winner. Fernando Verdasco and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga both won in straight sets. [e-mail]