Novak Djokovic wins his 10th Australian Open title, beats Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets

Novak Djokovic won his tenth Australian Open title – his 22nd Grand Slam crown overall – on Sunday by beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets (6-3, 7-6, 7-6) in the final at the Rod Laver arena in Melbourne. Heading into the match with a 10-2 head-to-head record, Novak was the favourite to walk out as the winner, and not to everyone’s surprise, he did the same.

The Serbian was on top of his game against the 24-year-old, who surprised everyone, including Novak with his beautiful backhand shots throughout the match. However, with this win, Novak has maintained his unbeaten winning streak in AO finals.

Taking an early lead in the first set, set the tone for Djokovic moving ahead. Though Tsitsipas did have his moments, he couldn’t avoid suffering a first-set loss at the hands of the nine-time champion, going down 3-6. Tsitsipas then came back stronger in the second set and kept winning his serves. Not only this, he also came from behind to tie the set at 6-6 before Novak won the second set with seven points in comparison to Tsitsipas’ four.

The third set, that also turned out to be the last, had its share of drama as Tsitsipas tried pulling the match in his favour but couldn’t as the Serbian force in Djokovic wasn’t ready to let go of his chance of making a statement in the tournament – where got banned from participating last year due to vaccine issues.

With superb back-and-forth during the match, it again reached the tie-breaker where Novak took a 5-0 lead in no time. Though the Greek player scored some points for himself, he eventually fell short as the now 22-time Grand Slam winner won the tiebreaker by 7-5.

This win made not only made Novak the number one player but also helped him go equal with legend Rafael Nadal’s with 22 Grand Slams.