An imperious Novak Djokovic won a record magnificent seventh Australian Open title yesterday by routing Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 with a display of flawless tennis.
The Serbian world No. 1 dominated the Spanish second seed to win his 15th Grand Slam title in just 2 hours, 4 minutes on the Rod Laver Arena.
It put Djokovic, 31, out on his own ahead of Roger Federer and Roy Emerson, who both won six Australian Open men’s singles titles.
Photo: AFP
Djokovic dropped to his knees and kissed the ground after vanquishing his greatest rival.
“I’m just trying to contemplate on the journey in the last 12 months,” said an emotional Djokovic, pausing for breath to compose himself and not become tearful.
“I had the surgery exactly 12 months ago,” he added, referring to an elbow operation that saw him slump out of the world’s top 20 before bouncing back to win Wimbledon and the US Open.
“To be standing now here in front of you today and managing to win this title and three out of four Slams, this is amazing. I am speechless,” he added.
The pair’s only previous final in Australia, in 2012, developed into a record-breaking 5 hour, 53 minute slugfest — the longest in Grand Slam history.
A repeat of that epic never materialized with Nadal uncharacteristically nervous at the start and Djokovic taking an immediate advantage that he would never relinquish.
“Even if tonight was not my best day, of course I had someone that played a lot better than me tonight,” Nadal said. “I have been going through tough moments in the last year. I was not able to play until the first round here. Even if tonight was not my night, it’s so important for me to be where I am coming back from injury.”
Djokovic told the crowd that the two rivals had both endured injury-ravaged campaigns last year.
“Obviously a tough match tonight, but ... you came back from an injury that took you out from the tour since September last year,” Djokovic said of Nadal.
“You’re showing to me and to all your other colleagues, and many young tennis players around the world, what is definition of the fighting spirit and resilience,” he added.
The Spaniard had not had his service broken since the third set of his first round match, but that streak ended in a flash as the Serb came sprinting out of the blocks.
Djokovic has now completed a hat-trick of Slams following his wins at Wimbledon and the US Open.
He would go to Paris in May for the French Open, seeking to become the only man in the Open Era to win all four majors twice.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier