The commentator summed it up perfectly at one point in the night. Where many expected an epic battle, all we got was a short story as Novak Djokovic outplayed Daniil Medvedev 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 to win his ninth Australian Open championship and 18th Grand Slam title.
King of Melbourne: Reactions to Novak Djokovic’s ninth Australian Open win, 18th Grand Slam title
The world No 1 and top seed Djokovic has now won the trophy three years in a row at Melbourne Park and extended his record to nine wins out of nine at the final of the Slam Down Under. He has won six of the last 10 major tournaments overall and his total of 18 Slams moves him within two of the men’s record of 20, currently shared by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
The No 4-seeded Medvedev was trying to collect his first Grand Slam title Sunday and the match started off with a fairly even first set before the Serb tore through the rest of the night for his straight-sets win. Djokovic used superb serving and his usual baseline excellence to end the Russian’s 20-match winning streak from November last year.
Here are the set-by-set highlights of the final:
You can watch the post-match reactions here:
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