Men’s tennis world number one, Novak Djokovic claimed the Australian Open title after a straight sets 7-5 6-2 6-2 victory over world number 4, Daniil Medvedev at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park on Sunday.
The victory gave the Serb Djokovic his ninth title in the Australian Open and his 18th Grand Slam overall, and further cemented his place in tennis history as the undisputed King of Melbourne Park, having won half of his total career grand slam titles in Australia.
Beaten finalist, Daniil Medvedev came into the final on the back of a 20 match winning streak, the current longest of any male professional player, and defeated Greek seventh seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets in the semifinals to book his spot in the final.
Tsitsipas, it must be remembered was the one who knocked out 20 time Grand slam champion, Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals.
Djokovic who was the favourite of fans who love betting on Tennis came into the 2021 tournament having won the Australian Open in 2019 and successfully defended it in 2020. His last Grand Slam title was incidentally the 2020 Australian Open after he was disqualified from the 2020 US Open and beaten in the final of the 2020 French Open by Rafael Nadal.
He defeated the tournament’s surprise package and Medvedev’s compatriot ranked 114th in the world, Aslan Karatsev in the semi-final to reach the his 9th Australian Open final.
The first set of the final between Djokovic and Medvedev was tightly contested, as Medvedev looked to frustrate the defending champion but Djokovic countered Medvedev by hitting his shots close to the net as he saw that he found more joy in doing so, and the first set finished in his favour 7-5.
The second set was when Medvedev really fell apart, as he looked agitated and frustrated at having to chase the game time and again, with Djokovic casually directing his shots all over the court, causing Medvedev to move a lot. Medvedev expended a lot of energy showing his frustration at the turn of events as he looked angry with himself and smashed his racquet on the floor several times.
Djokovic quickly wrapped up the set 6-2. In the third set, Medvedev had to do battle with a largely hostile Pro-Djokovic crowd too as they repeatedly chanted Djokovic’s name loudly. At a point, Medvedev had to ask the crowd to shut up and let him concentrate.
Djokovic rarely broke sweat as he finished the game with an inch perfect overhead return to wrap up the championship point and win the match 7-5 6-2 6-2 to claim his ninth Australian Open crown.
This was possibly one of his hardest Australian Open tournaments of all time, having picked up an abdominal injury on the fifth day of the tournament, but Djokovic’s victory at the Rod Laver Arena means that he’s now only two behind Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s grand slam hauls of 20 apiece, and the Serb has repeatedly shown himself to be the best ever to grace the Australian Open, just like Nadal can call the French Open his stomping ground and Federer has the US Open.
Djokovic has now won the title thrice in a row on two different occasions in 2019-2021 and 2011-2013.
Djokovic has now won 21 consecutive matches at the Australian Open, and has distinguished himself as one of the greatest male tennis players of all time.