Melbourne: Novak Djokovic put up a dominant show against Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece to win the men’s singles final match 6-3, 7-6(4), 7-6(5) at the Rod Laver Arena to claim the record-extending 10th Australian Open title.
The Serbian tied Rafael Nadal’s record of 22 Grand Slam crowns. With his victory over Tsitsipas, the 35-year-old returned to the top spot in the ATP Rankings for the first time since last June.
Djokovic defeated Tsitsipas, who would have taken the top spot himself with a win in Sunday’s final, to record his 10th straight tour-level victory. Djokovic will now replace Carlos Alcaraz as World Number 1.
Despite Tsitsipas saving two break points from 15/40 to hold for 1-1 in the first set, Djokovic’s customarily reliable and accurate groundstrokes dominated the early going. The Greek was unable to duplicate the escape in the fourth game, when Djokovic secured the sole break of the set, as he repeatedly applied pressure to Tsitsipas’ backhand.
Tsitsipas’ thunderous serve and massive forehand only slowly started to go off as he realised he needed to alter the pace of the game. The third seed took advantage of the fervent atmosphere at Rod Laver Arena to increase his level on many occasions in the second set when the Greek responded to winning critical games by encouraging his supporters in the crowd.
Nevertheless, Djokovic managed to prevail despite Tsitsipas earning the only breakpoint opportunity of the set (which also served as a set point) at 4-5, 30/40. Despite dropping three straight games to give up a 4/1 advantage, he arrowed a magnificent forehand winner to save the set point and remained composed to win the tie-break.
With his lone break of the match coming in the first game of the third set, Tsitsipas once more made a comeback threat. But Djokovic answered right away, as he has frequently throughout his career on stages this size. Prior to sealing a third set that was dominated by serve and his historic victory with a powerful tie-break performance, he broke back in the following game.
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