Melbourne: Defending champion Novak Djokovic credited a newly refined serve for his eight-game unbeaten streak this season after he romped past Japanese wildcard Tatsuma Ito to reach the Australian Open third round. The Serbian star gave up just seven games against the world number 146 in the 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 workout on Rod Laver Arena which lasted just 95 minutes. Djokovic has been taking tips from serving maestro Goran Ivanisevic and fired down 16 aces against Ito to extend his ominous run after winning six matches with Serbia at the ATP Cup.

"My serve was working extremely well in first round and second round. That's something I worked on in the off-season," said Djokovic, who is gunning for a 17th Grand Slam title and his eighth in Melbourne. "That's one of the priorities I guess of the training sessions, trying to get that I think advantage of winning a lot of easy points on the first serve. "It has been paying off so far I think in ATP Cup and here, two matches." His reward is a clash against another Japanese, Yoshihito Nishioka, who beat Britain's Dan Evans in three sets.