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“Aggressive, with margin,” the great Stanford University men’s coach Dick Gould used to say.

“Aggressive shots, to conservative targets,” is how Paul Annacone, coach to Pete Sampras and Roger Federer, framed the same idea.

Did Gould and Annacone watch Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams play at the Australian Open last night? If so, they would have seen their core piece of advice—to play forcefully but safely—put to brilliant use by the two favorites in their evening matches Down Under.

Serena was up first, against Genie Bouchard. The American was in an all-business mood, and she jumped to a 3-0 lead. In the next game, Bouchard found her feet and lasered a couple of service returns past Serena to break. Serena, predictably, didn’t like that; the fact that she still takes her opponent’s winners personally is one of the reasons she’s still at the top of the sport. During the following game, Serena shot a couple of glares down at Bouchard; you could feel a good, loud “Come on!” about to happen. It finally came at break point, when Serena rifled a forehand for a clean winner and celebrated with a hop, a skip, and a fist-pump. The set was hers.

“I knew, ‘Serena, you’ve got to come out hot, you’ve got to come out firing,’” she said afterward.

But while Serena wins with emotion—she’s still unwilling to accept anything less than near-perfection from herself—she also wins with the same fundamental tactics that Gould and Annacone promote. Against Bouchard, Serena set herself up to win a lot of points by hitting the ball hard, deep, and close to the middle, often on her return of serve. There was little risk in these shots, but they was still plenty of force. Bouchard did her best to hold her ground at the baseline, but the rallies were typically out of her control from the first shot on.

After two rounds, Serena and Novak remain the clear-cut Oz favorites

After two rounds, Serena and Novak remain the clear-cut Oz favorites

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As one tournament favorite walked off, the other walked on. Like Serena, Djokovic was facing a talented opponent and former Grand Slam finalist who is trying to work his way back up the rankings. Like Serena, Djokovic let that opponent know he has a long way to go.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is coming back from knee surgery at 33. So it came as something of a surprise when he reached the semifinals in Brisbane two weeks ago, and recorded a win over Alex de Minaur. During that run, I had been impressed by Tsonga’s speed and reaction time; he looked just as athletic and explosive as ever. It only took a couple of games on Thursday night to see that the same wasn’t going to be true against Djokovic.

What we saw instead was the way that Djokovic, with a subtle relentlessness, presses his opponents and takes their time away. Like Serena, he loves to pound his returns deep and down the middle—i.e., aggressively, but with margin—and work from there. Djokovic wasn’t belting the ball at top speed, but Tsonga was still rushed and hitting from his heels. Once he had the advantage in a point, Djokovic could dip into his repertoire.

The heavy crosscourt forehand, the straight forehand drive down the line, the short flick re-drop at the net: He had them all working, and he was also reading Jo’s serve well. While he gave a service break back at the end of the second set, I’m not sure you can really call that a hiccup. It’s just part of the normal Djokovic process—jump out to a lead, work through the inevitable nerves and frustrations, cruise down the homestretch—that he goes through in best-of-five-set matches.

After two rounds, Serena and Novak remain the clear-cut Oz favorites

After two rounds, Serena and Novak remain the clear-cut Oz favorites

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Many of us picked Djokovic and Serena to win this title; that’s hardly a surprise, considering that they’ve won the Australian Open 13 times between them (six for Djokovic, seven for Serena). Now that the first two rounds are over, and the fields have been culled from 256 to 64, there’s little reasons to doubt or rethink those predictions. Neither Djokovic nor Serena have lost a set; no matter what anyone else does, if they’re playing well, they’re the favorites to win any match they’re in, at least on this surface.

The 32-year-old Serb and the 37-year-old American have both suffered through dry spells over the last two years—Djokovic had elbow surgery and lost motivation, while Serena had a baby. Life got in the way, as they say. Neither won this title last year, either; it was just the second time since 2007 that one of them didn’t hoist the champion’s trophy in Melbourne.

Last summer at Wimbledon, after two years in the wilderness, Djokovic bounced straight back—in his customary rubber-band-man style—to the top of the sport. Right now Serena is in a similar place; it has been two years since her last Slam win, at the 2017 Australian Open. You get the feeling it’s going to be tough to keep either off of the trophy podium this time around. Despite all they’ve already done, Djokovic and Serena are both hungry, and they both know the simple secret to tennis that so many forget: “Aggressive, with margin.”

After two rounds, Serena and Novak remain the clear-cut Oz favorites

After two rounds, Serena and Novak remain the clear-cut Oz favorites

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