After two weeks of high-standard grand slam tennis, the 2023 Australian Open has came to an close last night with the men’s singles Final match between Novak Djokovic from Serbia & Melbourne’s “own” Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece here at Rod Laver Arena.
Novak got away with an easy opening set lead. Although it was a bit more difficult this time when facing a finalist out there v Tsitsipas, but Novak never gave up & kept himself strong where he won another stage in the 2nd via tiebreak with only more set needed to win this title. Then he faced the same difficulty yet again against Tsitsipas who doesn’t give him a free run all along, but Novak took his time well on the run home & that confirms his 10th Australian Open title here, 22nd grand slam trophy in-line with Rafa Nadal & will now re-claim the No.1 ATP Tour ranking starting today. The final score was 3-6, 6-7 (4-7 tiebreak) & 6-7 (5-7 tiebreak).
Sorry to see Tsitsipas fall second best again on his 2nd grand slam singles final occasion after Roland Garros two years ago. He fired off not bad with Novak where it took him a while to show plenty of fight following the first set loss. Tsitsipas did everything he can to stop Novak from slipping past in his tracks, having won a couple of games that went all the way via the tiebreak. Sadly, he didn’t have the execution needed to win a set & pile more pressure back onto Novak with the straight sets loss. Sure he’s learned a lot last night though as he will get used to playing grand slam finals more often by going one better for the title next time.
And yes, we feel for Novak when he capped off an emotion end to his Australian Open Final victory last night for the 10th time here. Huge scenes when he was crying alongside family who were there for Novak by his side. Moving onto his performance, him facing a rising elite grand slam star isn’t always easy. The first set was not hard for a start, but then he was tested plenty of times by Tsitsipas all along that will tell if he’s up to the challenge or not. The answer is that he responded really well where his patience & execution has helped Novak move past Tsitsipas unscathed before he got home safely. Now he still has unfinished business at 35 by planning to win more grand slams as possible; Let’s see if he can win three more throughout the same calendar year in 2023.
For now, we can’t wait for the next grand slam where we will turn our attention to the French Open/Roland Garros in Paris starting on Sunday 28th May-11th June.
