It's a magic act we've seen from so many great champions over the years—peaking at the right time, for the biggest matches and the biggest points within them.
On Sunday in Melbourne, Novak Djokovic did it again to become the Australian Open men's singles champion for a record-extending ninth time, winning his 18th Grand Slam title in the process. The Serb overwhelmed Daniil Medvedev, 7-5, 6-2, 6-2, to end the Russian's 20-match winning streak and improve his own run of consecutive AO titles to three.
After uncharacteristically laboring through much of the Aussie Open fortnight—and an abdominal injury first aggravated in Round 3—Djokovic won the final nine sets he played. His near-flawless finish was in stark contrast to the five sets he dropped from Round 2 through the opening set of his quarterfinal victory over 2020 US Open finalist Alex Zverev. He had never dropped as many sets en route to his previous eight Aussie finals.
But as the field condensed, Djokovic grew in stature. He made sure midnight struck in the semifinals against the tournament's Cinderella, Aslan Karatsev, with a ruthlessly efficient, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 result that signaled the Melbourne master was rounding into top form.
In the final, after surrendering an early break advantage, Djokovic summoned his best stuff when it mattered. From 5-all in the first set, he produced a love hold, then ripped two winners and forced a pair of errors to seal the opening set with a late break of serve, winning seven straight points in the process. He then recovered from dropping the opening service game of set two to further wrestle control of the proceedings in Rod Laver Arena.
"The Slams are the tournaments where I want to be able to perform my best." -Novak Djokovic
Then, with the title within reach, Djokovic erased a 15-40 deficit to start the third set, firing three big first serves to hold steady. While always dependable, the Serb's serve has not typically been a major weapon in his career. But throughout the Melbourne fortnight, the Djoker took advantage of the slick hard courts to flash this latest addition to his championship arsenal.
His 103 aces were by far the most of any man in the tournament, and many of them came at the most crucial moments, erasing break points or avoiding them altogether at 30-all or deuce. While he only had three aces in the final, he won 20 free points off unreturned serves in the contest and notched a 73% first-serve win rate (38 of 52). No doubt Goran Ivanisevic, who hit a major record 213 aces in winning Wimbledon in 2011, is a proud coach.
With Djokovic up two sets and a break, thoughts drifted to Medvedev's heroics against Rafael Nadal in the 2019 US Open final, when he came back from that position to force a fifth set and nearly snatch the upset. But Djokovic at the Australian Open is a different proposition—akin to Nadal at Roland Garros—and there would be no late drama as he extended his record to 9-0 in AO finals.
Djokovic's nine Melbourne titles rival Nadal's 13 in Paris and Roger Federer's eight in London, with this latest triumph inching him ever closer to their shared men's Grand Slam grand total record of 20. He's made no secret of his desire to chase down and pass that historic number.
"Even though I have been fortunate to win many majors and play in many major finals in my life, I do enjoy the success every single time even more because I know that the longer the time passes, the more difficult it's going to become for me to get my hands on the major trophy," Djokovic said in his championship press conference.
"You have, of course, new, young players coming up that are as hungry as you, maybe even hungrier, and they're coming up and they're challenging me and Roger and Rafa.
"I don't feel like I'm old or tired or anything like that. But I know that, biologically and realistically, things are different than they were 10 years ago for me. I have to be smarter with my schedule and peak at the right time. So the Slams are the tournaments where I want to be able to perform my best."
One record that Djokovic has locked up is the men's all-time mark for weeks at world No. 1. After recent results, he is assured of passing Federer's current record of 310 weeks in March.
Djokovic, who called securing that record "a relief," now intends to focus, even more so, on peaking for the Grand Slams.
