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There are many terms that can be used to describe Novak Djokovic, but quiet is not one of them. Funny? Yes. Talented? Certainly. A showman? Most definitely. A bit of a looker? Surely. But quiet? Nah.

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Yet the likeable Serb has been moving silently through the Australian Open 2010 draw like a shark on the hunt (all right, then, a shark with a gift for impersonations). He did drop a set against Marco Chiudinelli a couple of days back, but he soon steadied the ship and ran away with the rest of the match. And as the first week of the tournament drew to a close, he headed for the fourth round with the simplest of 6-1 6-1 6-2 wins over Denis Istomin on Saturday.

Djokovic hardly put a foot wrong, but Istomin was having a horrible day. His 11 winners were overwhelmed by 31 unforced errors – and against a player of Djokovic’s quality, that is never going to work. In just 97 minutes, Serbia’s finest was back in the locker room and looking forward to an appointment with Lukasz Kubot on Monday.

It is all so different from last year, when Djokovic and his new racquet arrived at Melbourne Park for the defence of his title. Trying desperately to keep his nerves under control, he finally succumbed to heat cramps and Andy Roddick in the quarter-finals. It was an unhappy end to his stay in Australia, but it did teach him a valuable lesson about the business of being one of the world’s true elite: winning a Grand Slam is hard, but defending one is eye-wateringly difficult.

“There were expectations that I never faced before,” Djokovic said. “I never found myself in the role of defending a Grand Slam title and I didn’t do a great job in holding my nerves by defending that title. I had a lot of ups and downs, and then unfortunately I had to retire in the quarters against Roddick due to the heat and everything. Everything kind of came up. After a great finish to the season in 2008, I started the season last year and then all the problems came, you know, mentally: me being very emotional on the court and off the court. I started thinking about too many off-court things that affected my game badly.”

Something, then, had to be done, and even after a good run through the clay court season and decent showing on the American hard courts, Djokovic was still searching for the answer. Finally, he found it in the tall and thoughtful figure of Todd Martin. Martin joined Djokovic’s team just before the US Open last year, and since then, the former champion has been feeling like his old self again.

“It’s all about details,” Djokovic said. “I can’t, for example, change my game, definitely the whole style – I can’t suddenly start to play serve and volley because that’s not me. But there are some particular things, as in movements, how you hit the ball, when you recognise the moment to get to the net, transition from defence to offence.

“So these things are very important, they are actually crucial. And when you hear that from somebody who was top five and was two times a finalist in Grand Slams and who has a name in this sport, it definitely makes a better impact. His experience is great, he’s a very positive person, he’s very calm. He brings that calmness to the team and to me particularly, which is important.”

The Djoker should be feeling quite calm about playing Kubot, the world No.86 from Poland, too: the two have only met once before, and Djokovic won in straight sets. The Pole has never been this far at a Grand Slam event before – he has only played two prior to this – and got his ticket to the last 16 when Mikhail Youzhny withdrew from their scheduled match with a right wrist injury.