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Novak Djokovic has spoken after risking disqualification from the Australian Open. During the second set of Saturday's match against Botic van de Zandschulp, the No. 4 seed hit a ball away after his opponent sent it long, and narrowly avoided unintentionally hitting a ball kid at the side of the court.

The 10-time former champion here raised his arm up to apologise, but commentator Colin Fleming exclaimed: "Careful... that was almost a default. That was so close to a default." Watching a slow-motion replay of the incident, Fleming added: "I'm a little surprised that it isn't a code violation, actually. Oh my goodness, that's less than a metre from a default."

After clinching a 6-3 6-4 7-6(4) victory, Djokovic was asked whether he felt "lucky" to still be in the tournament. Addressing the incident, he replied: "Yeah, I apologised for that.

"That was not necessary and in the heat of the moment. Yeah, I was lucky there, and I'm sorry for causing any distress to the ball kid or anybody."

Djokovic was famously defaulted from the 2020 US Open when he unintentionally hit a lineswoman with a ball. The former world No. 1 became frustrated when he was broken to trail Pablo Carreno Busta 6-5 and took a ball out of his pocket, hitting it away in frustration. But it struck the lineswoman in question, and he was sent out of the tournament.

After a near-miss in the third round of the Aussie Open, Djokovic is now through to the second week here for the 18th time in his career. The 38-year-old has yet to drop a set at the tournament, and knows that he needs to save as much energy as possible for the latter stages, when he could come up against Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. But he's not consciously thinking about it during matches.

"I try honestly not thinking about managing the energy on the court in terms of, you know, being economic or saving something for the later rounds, because it's just I don't feel that's the right mindset," the 24-time Grand Slam champion explained

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"I think it's important to get the most out of yourself on the given day to win against the opponent on that day. I try to do it as efficiently as possible, and I have won nine out of nine sets so far, so I couldn't ask for more.

"Today I had a really good test. He was playing aggressive and well, and I think I was moving great. There's always something that is happening with the body, but I think generally I feel as good as I have felt in a while.

"I cannot predict the future. I don't know how things are going to unfold from this day onwards, but I'm doing everything I can. I haven't practised yesterday, or between first, second round, I had two days. One day, I didn't practice. The second I did. Then now I didn't practice in between now the second and third round, because I'm obviously trying to be strategic, talking with my team to what's more important, you know.

"I'm hitting the ball well. I trained hard for last couple months, and everything is going okay on the court. So it's more important to save energy, right, not stress my body out unnecessarily on the training or whatever it is.

"So, you know, every single day when I wake up, we have to evaluate what's the right thing to do on that day, and good thing about slams again is that day between, right? But it's best-of-five, and of course because it's a Grand Slam emotionally, there is more tension, more stress, of course, all these aspects that are factors that are in play, but it's not something I'm not used to or not familiar with. So I'm happy to be where I am, you know, and hoping for the best moving forward."