In the first set, Novak Djokovic demonstrated in his Australian playground (where he was not welcome last year). He entertained the audience with precision and offensive tennis.
Djokovic outperformed his opponent in every part of the game. Stefanos Tsitsipas seemed somewhat impressed. His serve faltered and the Greek made too many mistakes.
In the second set, playing time was over for Djokovic. Suddenly it was working for every point, because everything about Tsitsipas’ tennis was better: his serve, his returns, the confidence with which he hit the ball and the number of errors.
The challenger of “mister Australian Open” even got a set point on Djokovic’s serve. Djokovic did come out of that entanglement and dragged a tiebreak out of the fire.
In the tiebreak of the second set, Tsitsipas showed resilience after an early 4-1 deficit, but to no avail.
Djokovic, who knows and used every inch of the Rod Laver Arena, finished it off on the first set point he got. It gave him a 2-0 lead in sets.
Tsitsipas must have been very disappointed, but he did not let himself be broken mentally. And it would stay that way until the last point.
In the third set it continued to work more than playing for Djokovic. Tsitsipas even hit more winners than Djokovic, but the Greek error burden was also much higher.
The result was another tiebreaker. The 35-year-old Djokovic immediately tried to silence his eleven-year-younger opponent, who continued to resist.
From 5-0 down in the tiebreak, Tsitsipas came back to 6-5. It was not until the third match point that Djokovic was able to win the winner again in Melbourne. With ten victories, there is no one who even comes close to the Serb. He also becomes the number 1 in the world again.
