After missing last year’s tournament when he was deported for being unvaccinated for Covid-19, the Serbian star beat Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in straight sets to win his 22nd Grand Slam title.
MELBOURNE, Australia — Novak Djokovic came to Australia with a mission, or really a series of them.
To win the championship he had won nine times once again. To win a 22nd Grand Slam men’s singles title and draw even with his rival Rafael Nadal at the top of the list. To remove any doubt anyone might have about whether he remains the world’s dominant player, the most commanding player of the last decade and now this one, too. To show the world that the only way to keep him from winning nearly any tennis tournament is to not let him play.
A year after Australia deported him over his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19, Novak Djokovic reclaimed the Grand Slam title he has won more than any other, capturing a record 10th championship at the Australian Open by beating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) on Sunday.
In addition to gaining pole position to surge past the injured star Nadal on the career Grand Slam list — and in the G.O.A.T. debate — Djokovic also reclaimed the top spot in the world rankings, making him, at 35-years-old, the second-oldest player to reach that rarefied realm, behind only Roger Federer who was nearly 37 during his last stint on top of the tennis world. Djokovic turns 36 on May 22. Probably a bad idea to bet against him taking that record from Federer, as he has so many others.
Djokovic’s score sheets in this tournament might suggest that these last two weeks were a little more than a vacation Down Under with some tennis thrown in. He dropped only a single set in seven matches. His fourth-round, quarterfinal and semifinal tests were near-complete wipeouts of opponents who appeared beaten from the first ball.