Former Stanford men’s tennis star Nishesh Basavareddy made his Australian Open debut this week as a wild card, losing to No. 7 Novak Djokovic 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 2-6 in the first round. It was Basavareddy’s first match in the main draw of a grand slam after losing in the qualifying round of the US Open back in August.
Match Stats: Novak Djokovic vs. Nishesh Basavareddy
Via ATPTour.com: One of Basavareddy’s dream dinner guests? His Australian Open opponent Djokovic!
Currently ranked No. 107 in the world, Basavareddy had a strong career at Stanford, turning pro after his sophomore season in 2023-24. As a sophomore, he went 11-2 in singles matches against ranked opponents and finished the season ranked No. 12 in the nation. He was named Pac-12 Singles Player of the Year and helped the Cardinal win their first regular season Pac-12 title since 2021. He committed to Stanford as part of their 2022 class as a 5-star Blue Chip recruit, ranked as high as No. 4 in the nation.
Looking closer at his match against Djokovic, if you look at total points, it was actually a pretty close match as Djokovic won 129-106. The big difference is Djokovic was 4/11 on break point chances while Basavareddy was 1/3 on break point chances, breaking Djokovic’s serve just once.
As for his service game, Basavareddy had a first serve percentage of 55%, winning 72% of his first serve points. However, Basavareddy won just 45% of his second serve points. They say you’re only as good as your second serve and that was certainly the case in this match. Djokovic made 68% of his first serves and won 78% of those points while also winning 62% of his second serve points. Basavareddy did get four service aces off Djokovic, one with his second serve, so that’s a positive he can take from this match though it should be noted that Djokovic aced him 24 times.
Regarding his groundstrokes, Basavareddy’s forehand was stronger in this match as he had one forehand passing shot winner and three forehand drop shot winners. He had zero passing shot winners and zero drop shot winners with his backhand. If he could improve his backhand and make that more of a weapon, that would be huge.
Neither guy went to the net much though volleying is something that Basavareddy needs to work on as he had four unforced errors at the net while having two winners. Djokovic in contrast had five winners and zero errors at the net.
Getting this kind of feedback from a match against an all-time great, perhaps the greatest ever, is something that should help Basavareddy as he is just beginning his pro career. There’s no better way to see what your strengths and weaknesses are than to play against the best.
For Basavareddy, his pro career is off to a great start. He’s not only played in his first grand slam, but he took a set off Novak Djokovic, who is widely considered the greatest men’s tennis player of all-time. It’ll be fun to see what Basavareddy accomplishes this season and what kind of an impact he makes in his first full season on the ATP World Tour.
CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), & Blue Sky: @StanfordRivals
Ben Parker on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), & Blue Sky: @slamdunk406
Email: slamdunk406@yahoo.com
Join the conversation on CardinalSportsReport.com
