A Final to savour? No. A year to look forward to? Hell yes! By Global Chick.
And so ‘twas ever thus. Novak Djokovic continued his unbeaten run in the finals of the Australian Open with a four set win over Andy Murray 7-6(5) 6-7(4) 6-3 6-0. Was it an epic, no. But is it a sign that Djokovic could go on to achieve his career slam? Yes.
With more efforts of literally coming back to life than Lazarus, Djokovic seemed to struggle again and again with his strength and fitness before coming back time and again at Murray. And credit to the Brit, it was the only time his head went down throughout the entire tournament when at the end, the frustration got to him to the point that he could not pull back from the brink.
The first two sets were outstanding. We all thought we were all in for the long haul. And by that I mean the kind of ling haul that takes you to some sunny island the other side of the world. A tight first set tie-break, two hours plus before the second set tie-break swung Murray’s way, it really did look like this would be an extraordinary final.
It’s always an odd thing with the third set, where both players looked a little jaded, but the fourth set was really not indicative of the match – sure Murray had lost his rhythm by that point, and it was a crying shame (or in his case, a bit of a grumpy look) that he could not salvage anything from the final set, but there is a lot to be happy about.
If anyone had watched him get dismantled quite effectively by Roger Federer at Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, and then told us he would be contesting the Australian Open finals a couple of months later, we would have been chuckling quite heartily.
We can all shake our heads and say “well he should have faced Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal” but be fair, good citizens of the tennis world. He can only face who makes it to the other side of the net and for our money this was as good a final match up as you could hope for at this stage of the season.
We afforded ourselves a little chortle after all the furore at Kim Sears indulging in a little earthy anglo-saxon in the semi-final, but that was nothing to the stone-faced look after Djokovic wished Andy and Kim lots of babies. Perhaps the wedding invitation may take a while to arrive! But gracious in his speech, Murray thanked his box for getting him closer to where he needs to be and we should be looking forward to more of the same from him now.
And so ends the first splurge of the tennis season. With Fed Cup and smattering of ATP 250s on the horizon, it’s time to assemble the mish-mash of tournaments before we hit the real clay swing.
Until then – it’s five-by-five for the Serbinator.
Topics: Andy Murray, Atp, Australian Open, global chick, Idemo, Melbourne, Novak Djokovic, Sports, Tennis
-@DjokerNole BATTLES @andy_murray FOR WINNER IN #AusOpen, THE LAST SET THE #DJOKER SERVED ANDY A “BAGEL” http://t.co/K6X48a4OVh #idemo #AO15