Tennis Atlantic

Dynamic Djokovic Makes It 3 In A Row At AO

Steen Kirby, TennisEastCoast.com

Novak Djokovic gave a warrior’s performance in a 4 set victory over Andy Murray, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-2 to repeat as Australian Open champion and capture his 4^th AO title overall.

Djokovic and Murray played 2 tight tiebreak sets with no breaks of serve, even though Djokovic had 5 break chances in the opening set which were all saved by Murray. Murray had 3 break point chances of his own in the 2^ndset, all saved by Djokovic.

Murray struggled with his 1^st serve in the opening set, but played much stronger in the 2^nd up until the tiebreak. Momentum shifted after the 2^nd set breaker was taken by Djokovic. Murray, who by then was struggling with a foot blister among other ailments, continued to play his heart out but began to fade getting broken midway in the 3^rd set and the 4th.

It was a bit of a bland match, but had some excellent rallying. If you are a Djokovic fan, it was rewarding match.

Djokovic had to survive a tremendous, match-of-his-life performance by Stanislas Wawrinka in the round of 16 (winning 1-6 7-5 6-4 6-7 12-10) in 5 hours plus after a listless start and some tremendous hitting by Wawrinka. The Serbian then recovered quickly beyond expectations to roll past Tomas Berdych in 4 sets and David Ferrer in straights. Those wins were  particularly top notch showings.

It was at times a struggle for Novak, but he continues to show why he is world number one and must be truly regarded as the best player in the world right now. Whether he is listless or firing on all cylinders, he still finds a way to win.

Murray had an easy march to the semifinals, beating an exhausted Gilles Simon, and a surprising Jeremy Chardy in straights, before gutting out his first career best of 5 win over Roger Federer.  Murray split sets with the The Great One through 4 and then put Fed away in the 5^th with confident serving and quality defensive retrieval.

Murray drops to 0-3 in AO finals and remains with just the one major win. This final was a rematch of their 5 set semifinal at last year’s AO, won by Djokovic, and a rematch of the US Open final, won by Murray.

In the men’s doubles, the Bryan Brothers won a record 13^thgrand slam title over the unseeded team of Dutchmen Robin Haase and Igor Sijsling and continue to dominate.

In the mixed doubles, a special tip of the cap to a TEC favorite and one of the nicest guys on the tour, Matt Ebden, who won the title with his Aussie partner Jarmila Gajdosova and claimed one for the home country.