Former Illinois men’s tennis star Amer Delic advanced to the third round of the Australian Open on Tuesday after defeating No. 28-seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu of France, 1-6, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3), 9-7 in the second round of play in Melbourne, Australia.

Delic’s matches won’t get any easier, as the 2003 NCAA Singles Champion will face the No. 3 player in the world, Novak Djokovic.

“It’s just awesome,” Illinois head coach Brad Dancer said. “It gets the guys juiced up, it gets me juiced up and it gets all of our tennis booster community juiced up.”

Delic topped fellow American Taylor Dent in five sets in the first round. Against Mathieu, Delic’s serve was in fine form, as the 26-year-old tallied 33 aces. Djokovic defeated Jeremy Chardy of France in three sets while converting on all six of his break point opportunities.

“Bottom line, I can tell you Djokovic is not looking forward to playing Amer,” Dancer said. “Amer brings a big-time skill set. Now that he’s had two five set matches, I guarantee his mental acuity is really sharp. If his body holds up, he’s going to give Djokovic all he wants.”

Djokovic was defeated in the second round of the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open by another former Illini star, Kevin Anderson, who turned pro in 2008 after the completion of his junior season.

The Delic-Djokovic match will be televised Thursday night on ESPN2.