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Novak Djokovic celebrates his tenth title at the Australian Open, the 22nd Grand Slam with which he equals the men’s record that Rafa Nadal held alone until last Sunday. The Spaniard had to watch it from home, where he is recovering from his last injury (grade 2 tear in the iliopsoas of the left leg). He will not be able to play, at least, until March.
They are the two sides of the coin of a historic heads-up that, in principle, will continue at Roland Garros (May 28 to June 11). Nadal has marked those two weeks in red, and he will try to prepare well for the clay campaign that will begin, if all goes well for him, in Monte Carlo (April 9-16). On his calendar would be Barcelona, Madrid and Rome, before the French major. The question is whether he will decide to compete earlier, on the American hard court tour, which will go through Indian Wells and Miami.
Djokovic poses with the Australian Open trophy in Melbourne
The Serbian tennis player, Novak Djokovic, defeated the Greek Stéfanos Tsitsipás in the final of the Australian Open in three sets (6-3, 7-6 (4) and 7-6 (5).
In this way he reaches Rafael Nadal and is number one again instead of Alcaraz.
Novak with the Australian Open trophy through the streets of Melbourne.
He has won his 22nd Grand Slam title and equals Rafa Nadal’s men’s record for the second time (they were already tied at 20).
He is placed in fourth place on the historical list of ATP trophies (93), ahead, here, of Nadal (92).
In addition, it is placed as number one in the ranking to the detriment of Carlos Alcaraz, who becomes second.
At the Rod Laver Arena, he has chained 28 consecutive victories, since the then unexpected South Korean Hyeon Chung beat him in the round of 16 of the 2018 edition.
At 35, he is the third oldest Open winner after Ken Rosewall (37) and Roger Federer (36).
Now he has it all. Next will be his 374th week on the tennis throne.
Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic kissing the Australian Open champion trophy.
Novak Djokovic takes a ‘selfie’ with the tennis player’s supporters in Melbourne.
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Djokovic, for his part, plans to compete again in Dubai (February 27 to March 5), an ATP 500 event that Nadal had signed up for., who was also going to play an exhibition in Las Vegas on March 5 against Carlos Alcaraz. Those two appointments are no longer in his plans. The Balkan will attend the aforementioned Masters 1,000 Americans and He will then face the return to clay, in Monte Carlo, Madrid and, probably, Rome, to get to Roland Garros as well as possiblewhere he will try to consummate the surprise with his 23rd Slam trophy.
The eternal need to vindicate
“I think there is still a lot of fire inside of me, burning because of the passion I feel for this sport and for competition. And I think that is what allows me to continue to push myself to the limit”, Djokovic said this Monday in the gardens of the Governor’s House in Melbourne, after the photo session reserved for the Australian Open champions. “The training sessions, very repetitive, are sometimes not very interesting, but I know that there is always a greater objective, stars that guide me. And this trophy is one of them. It is something that I will always strive for”, he added before acknowledging that he is not really sure when he will play again, due to the injury he is carrying on his left thigh: “I’m not sure. I’m going to have medical tests in the next few days. I am registered in Dubai and hope to be back on the slopes in a few weeks.” Regarding the doubts that caused his inconvenience in some media, he assures that He will give “more details” and will publish “photos” on his social networks “with everything that has happened.” I don’t want it to sound pathetic. I won the trophy. But two years ago something similar happened and people continue to doubt. If it had been something small, I could have trained on rest days and I couldn’t. I had never experienced a situation like this.”
The genius from Belgrade joked when telling how he had celebrated his triumph: “With the press and anti-doping control. I haven’t really had as much of an opportunity yet as I would have liked. I hope I can do it in Europe”.
