A victory. A win to reclaim the number one ranking, a win to match Nadal’s number of Slam wins. A victory to take it all back. Novak Djokovic, after a difficult three rounds, banished the demons from his left thigh issue and reached his 10th Australian Open final in remarkably orderly fashion.
After De Minaur and Rublev, the Serbian champion disposed of the revelation Tommy Paul with a 7-5 6-1 6-2. Although in reality the first set was slightly affected by a small oversight. Not bad. The Serbian phenomenon, among other things hunting for the “Tenth” on the blue of Melbourne Park, took complete control of the matter and left crumbs on the street thanks to a then impeccable performance.
With his tenth Slam final in Australia, the Serbian equals Serena Williams in the Major finals ranking (33) and surpasses Andre Agassi in the ranking of most consecutive wins (26) in the Australian Slam. To find a defeat in Australia you even have to rewind the tape to five years ago.
On the opposite side of the net, Stefanos Tsitsipas was confirmed after one tournament as the top seed. Similar situation to Flushing Meadows, with first place also in sight for Greek talent. Winner takes all, basically. Tsitsi’ reached his second career Slam final thanks to his success against Karen Khachanov, who tried to put everything down with everything he had at his disposal.
Djokovic defends his father
Novak Djokovic has finally weighed in on the controversy surrounding his father Srdjan. “My father, my whole family, and myself have been through several wars during the ’90s,” he said. “As my father put in a statement, we are against war, we never will support any violence or any war.
We know how devastating that is for the family and for people in any country that is going through war. My father has been going after every single match to meet with my fans at the main square here in Australian Open, to thank them for the support, to be with them, pay them respect, and make photos.
The photo that he made, he was passing through. I heard what he said in the video. He said, ‘Cheers’ Unfortunately, some of the media have interpreted that in a really wrong way. He was misused in this situation by this group of people.
I can’t be angry with him or upset because I can say it was not his fault. He went out to celebrate with my fans, and that’s it. There was a lot of Serbian flags around.”
