I think in sports the most common theme is pressure. You either succumb to it or thrive in the most intense of moments. When it comes to pressure in this final between Stefanos Tsitsipas versus Novak Djokovic they both feel it but for different reasons.
Tsitsipas feels it as he is looking to become a first-time major winner, world number 1, oh and defeat an opponent who has never lost a major final in Melbourne. That is a ton of pressure.
Djokovic is looking to add to his legacy, trying to equal the number of major titles Nadal has, return to world number 1, and reclaim the championship that he was not allowed to fight for one year ago.
As I said, the theme here is pressure. The 64,000-dollar question is though, who would feel the pressure and who would feed off it?
Entering this tournament, both players were odds-on favorites to win this title, Djokovic more than Tsitsipas.
Each of them had their struggles entering the tournament. Of course, Djokovic was plagued with a hamstring injury and no one knew the severity of it. When it came to Tsitsipas, could he get back to another major semifinal? He had made the last two down in Melbourne.
After his 2nd round match, Djokovic was asked about his hamstring and the condition of it and he said, “Not good, not good at all.”
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However, after that match, the hamstring started to get stronger and stronger and stronger eventually getting him past Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev to reach the semifinals.
With Tsitsipas, he was moving smoothly through his draw without dropping a set until he met up with Jannik Sinner in the round of 16. Tsitsipas went up two sets to love on Sinner and Sinner found his way back to push it to a fifth set.
Ultimately Tsitsipas in the end would get through that match in five sets and advance to the quarterfinals.
After a straight-set win for Tsitsipas in the quarters, he would meet Karen Khachanov, who made his 2nd straight major semifinal after making the final 4 in New York last year.
Novak Djokovic would meet American Tommy Paul, who was in his first major semifinal. The possibility of a Tsitsipas/Djokovic final seemed imminent but there was work to be done first.
Tsitsipas played an exceptional match against Khachanov and should have won in straight sets but issues converting set points in the third set ultimately pushed the match to a fourth set which Tsitsipas was able to come through and win advancing to the final.
Honestly, the only hiccup that Djokovic had in his semifinal was being up 5-1 on Tommy Paul and serving for the set but the American came back and evened things up five games all.
Djokovic was able to win the final two games of that set and win it 7-5. After that, it was smooth sailing for Djokovic as he won in straight sets and advanced to his 10th Australian Open final.
Entering the final things didn’t seem promising for Tsitsipas. Not only has Novak never lost an Australian Open final, but Tsitsipas has a 2-10 losing record against Djokovic. Remember our theme here, pressure, yeah, Tsitsipas was feeling it, especially in the opening set.
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Djokovic served strong in set number 1, not facing one break point and cruising through his service games.
While Tsitsipas had 6 aces, he also struggled to find the court, especially with his forehand having 7 unforced errors from the groundstroke that honestly was the main reason he got to this final.
One break of serve was all Novak needed as he won the opening set 6-3. The second set is where things seemed to turn around in terms of Tsitsipas playing at a much higher level.
In a set that was back and forth with neither player dropping serve, we ultimately got to a tiebreak in set number two. In the tiebreaker honestly, neither player looked that strong but it was Djokovic who was a bit better and won the tiebreak 7-4.
Djokovic had a two sets to love lead. I hope the Tsitsipas team doesn’t pay attention to stats because they wouldn’t like this one, Djokovic is 8-0 in major finals when up 2 sets to love.
It was very surprising to see Tsitsipas missing the forehand like he was. He had twenty-two unforced errors from his forehand when his forehand was the shot that was going to win him this title if it was firing the way that it had been all tournament.
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If Tsitsipas was going to win this he had to turn things around in a hurry and early.
Well, he did and then he didn’t. He broke Djokovic to open the third set but then Novak broke him right back. With a player like Djokovic especially on this court, you can not afford to blow opportunities that you have he honestly won’t let you recover.
Each player held serve and then we got to another tiebreak. Djokovic knew how close he was to winning his 10th Australian Open championship, he can see it, literally and figuratively.
With the shot that let him down all night, Tsitsipas hits a forehand error and Novak Djokovic wins his 10th Australian Open, his 22nd major overall, oh and is now the brand-new world number 1.
The emotions of this final for Novak definitely showed when he went to celebrate with his team. As Djokovic wept after winning this title you could just see how this meant to him. After all that occurred last year for Novak, he returned to his most special place on a tennis court.
The place where he had the most success and frankly the most trying time of his career. Novak Djokovic, 35, now equals the number of major titles of rival Rafael Nadal.
While The French Open is Nadal’s most successful major by a longshot, the injury to Nadal is a definite question mark.
The other question is not just how many majors will Djokovic finish with but how many will he finish with this year.
At some point, the legends of the game will put their racquets back in their bag one final time. Federer already has and at some point, Novak and Rafa will too.
The younger generation will take the mantle and we will see new stars emerge and they will cement their legacy.
Tonight though, Novak Djokovic might have cemented his legacy as the best to ever do it. Not only did Djokovic feed off the pressure of this match, but he also embraced it.