A year after being banished days before the start of the Australian Open, Novak Djokovic won the 2023 Australian Open with a 6-3, 7-6(4), 7-6(5) victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas at Rod Laver Arena on Sunday. Lifted the open trophy.
With the win, the 35-year-old Serbian extended his record run to 10 titles at Melbourne Park and equaled Rafael Nadal’s career record of 22 Grand Slam titles. The world No. 5 has now won 28 Australian Open matches in a row and has a 20-0 record in semi-finals and finals in this tournament. Overall, it is Djokovic’s 93rd ATP title.
They won the first set relatively easily before Tsitsipas turned and took the tiebreaker in the last two sets. But Djokovic had the upper hand in both the tiebreakers. After taking a 4-4 lead in the first set, he jumped to 4-1 and won the last three points to take the second set. He smelled the victory in the final tiebreaker and quickly raced to a 5-0 lead before the end of the match.
Moments after the win, Djokovic found coach Goran Ivanisevic in the crowd and went to celebrate with him and others. Returning to the court, the Serbian sat down on a bench near him and began to cry – and for good reason. He has spent a record 373 weeks as world No. 1 through his career, and will find himself jumping four places back to the top in the next ATP rankings.
Djokovic said after the match, “It’s been one of the toughest tournaments, given the conditions. Not playing last year is coming back this year.” The Guardian reported, “I want to thank everyone who made me feel comfortable. There’s a reason I’m playing the best tennis here.”
Djokovic said it was the “biggest” win of his career.
“Only the team and the family know what we’ve been through in the last four or five weeks,” he said. “It is probably, I would say – given the circumstances, the biggest win of my life.”
Djokovic came into the tournament with a hamstring injury sustained at the Adelaide International – a tournament he also won – earlier in January. The injury raised its head at the Australian Open, including at the start of his quarterfinal match with Andrey Rublev, but Djokovic overcame it.
His expulsion from the same tournament last year was due to his COVID-19 vaccination status, but he was allowed to return to Australia after the country eased its vaccine restrictions. Before this year’s Australian Open, Djokovic said there were don’t mind How everything went down in 2022.
Tsitsipas said, “It’s all in the numbers. You make me a better player when I’m on the court.” “I’ve had the privilege of playing very high-intensity sports but these are the matches I’ve been working my whole life for. He’s the greatest in our sport. He’s the greatest to have ever wielded a tennis racket.”
Djokovic is now 11-2 against Tsitsipas, who was competing in his second Grand Slam final and is still in search of his first major title.
