Djokovic tops Murray for Australia hat-trick
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, January 28, 2013
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Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates his third successive Australian Open title after beating Briton Andy Murray in the men's final in Melbourne yesterday. |
Novak Djokovic returned to his dominant best to win his third consecutive Australian Open title, denying Andy Murray a second major championship with a 6-7 (2), 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-2 victory at Rod Laver Arena last night.
The top-ranked Djokovic is the first man in the Open era to win three straight Australian titles - nine others have won back-to-back but were unable to win three in a row.
"I love this court," Djokovic said. "It's definitely my favorite grand slam. It's an incredible feeling winning this trophy once more."
He has won four of his six majors titles at Melbourne Park, where he is now unbeaten in 21 matches.
Born a week apart in May 1987 and friends since their junior playing days, the two played like they knew each other's game very well in a rematch of last year's US Open final won by Murray. There were no service breaks until the eighth game of the third set, when Djokovic finally broke through and then held at love to lead by two sets to one.
Djokovic earned two more service breaks in the fourth set, including one to take a 4-1 lead when Murray double-faulted on break point.
The 25-year-old Serb didn't rip his shirt off this time, as he did to celebrate his epic 5-hour, 53-minute win over Rafael Nadal in last year's final. He just did a little dance, looked up to the sky and then applauded the crowd after the 3-hour, 40-minute match.
"I'd like to thank Novak," Murray said afterwards. "His record here is incredible. There are very few people who have managed to do what he has done here.
"He's an amazing champion, so well done to him."
Murray's win over Djokovic in the US Open final last year ended a 76-year drought for British men at the majors, but he still is yet to make a breakthrough in Australia after losing a third final here in the last four years.
Djokovic's win went against the odds of recent finals at Melbourne Park. In four of the past five years, the player who won his semifinal second has won the tournament. But this year, Djokovic played his semifinal on Thursday - an easy three-set, 89-minute win over No. 4-seeded David Ferrer of Spain. Murray needed five energy sapping sets to beat 17-time major winner Roger Federer of Switzerland on Friday night.
The win consolidated Djokovic's position as the No. 1-ranked player in the world, while Federer and Murray will be second and third when the ATP rankings are released today.
Their last two matches in grand slams - Murray's five-set win at last year's US Open and Djokovic's victory here last year in five in the semifinals - had a total of 35 service breaks.
It was a vastly different, more tactical battle yesterday, with the first two tight sets decided in tiebreakers.
Murray, who called for a trainer to retape blisters on his right foot at the end of the second set, was visibly annoyed by noise from the crowd during his service games in the third set, stopping his service motion twice until the crowd quieted down. After dropping the third set, he complained about the noise to chair umpire John Blom.
Andre Agassi was among those in the capacity crowd at Rod Laver Arena - the four-time Australian champion's first trip down under in nearly 10 years - and he later presented the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup to Djokovic.
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