Djokovic makes a big impression as Andy lags behind

Following his safe passage into the Australian Open second round, third seed Novak Djokovic was asked by the courtside TV interviewer to do one of his impressions of other top players serving.

Back out he went on to the baseline of the Rod Laver Arena and did a masterful impersonation of Maria Sharapova preening herself before delivering her serve, much to the delight of a crowd who had just seen him dismiss German Benjamin Becker 6-0, 6-2, 7-6.

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The 20-year-old Serb is a proper extrovert, although he is mindful these days of who he takes off when doing his party piece.

A few in the men's game — including Roger Federer — are not that impressed with some of his antics.

Rafael Nadal is another who was none too pleased last year when Djokovic made fun of his idiosyncratic service preparations, such as picking at his shorts around his bottom. Djokovic was not entirely comfortable in acceding to the interviewer's request and explained: "There was a lot of talk in the past few months about me doing impersonations and I don't like it when people comment in a negative way. I don't try to offend anybody. It's good that I just did Maria, she doesn't mind."

The main thing is that, on hard courts at least, he is the biggest challenger to Federer's dominance and remains well ahead of Andy Murray.

But he is not immune from the pressures also felt by the Scot, who is a week older. When Djokovic did a press conference in his home city of Belgrade recently, more than 100 turned up.

He said: "Andy and I have been on the top of our generations throughout the juniors. We both have a lot of quality and potential. It's been expected for us to do well but I didn't expect to get to No 3 in just a couple of months last year.

"I try not to think too much about people saying that I've got enough quality to win a Grand Slam this year, especially on hard courts, but it's only natural that you feel some pressure."

Djokovic is in Federer's half of the draw and, like the rest of the field, will not have drawn any succour from an opening-round performance that saw him hammer Argentina's Diego Hartfield 6-0, 6-3, 6-0.

The world No 1 now meets Frenchman Fabrice Santoro.