Murray thus lost the 5th final in Melbourne out of a total of five.
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Federer had to scramble just to avoid humiliation in a semifinal Thursday before losing in four sets that featured plenty of sensational shot-making but a dearth of true suspense.
The win moves Djokovic into a tie with Roy Emerson for most titles at the Australian Open and into fifth place on the list of all-time Grand Slam titles.
“I can’t lie and say I didn’t think about it”, Djokovic said.
“MURRAY INSISTS HE’S NOT FAR OFF DJOKOVIC: Andy Murray insisted he wasn’t far away from matching Novak Djokovic despite his fourth defeat to the runaway world number one in the Australian Open final”.
As for his hurried departure, he said, “I’ve been held on flights for, like, five days”.
Born a week apart and rising through the tennis world together, the two are very familiar with each other’s game, but world number one Djokovic is simply on a different level.
“The US Open could be the trickiest: How all the players manage their schedules and who comes out the best from the Olympics”, tennis analyst Robbie Koenig said.
“Regardless of today s result, it s been hard”.
Just over 16 hours earlier, Soares and Murray beat Daniel Nestor and Radek Stepanek 2-6 6-4 7-5, also on Rod Laver Arena.
“Whether that looks the same from the outside or not, I don’t know”.
The world is impressed and amazed by Novak Djokovic’s dominance but it isn’t much fun watching him trample over his competitors time and time again. It wasn’t possible at all times because he would change up the tactics and he was playing better in the third. “I don’t think about limiting my ambitions or what I might be able to achieve”.
“I’m proud that I got into this position”, Murray said. Djokovic was 21-9 in their career head-to-head and had won 10 of his last 11 matches against the Scot, but Murray had twice beaten him in a major final. Kim’s father, Nigel Sears, was in Australia as coach for Ana Ivanovic, but became ill and had to be rushed to a nearby hospital by ambulance while Murray was on court in his third-round match.
“I went to bed at 5, set my alarm for 11, woke up at 8:30… been living on coffee ever since”, Soares said.
“This trophy is even more unique for me tonight and when you have an opportunity to make history it adds to the motivation and incentive before you come out on the court”.
“I heard a nice metaphor yesterday about the wolf running up the hill being much hungrier than the wolf standing on top of the hill”, he told media members.
Andy Murray touched down in London on Monday after racing back from Melbourne to be with his heavily pregnant wife Kim Sears. He held to 15 with a wrong-footing forehand victor, leaving a hapless Murray staring down his first bagel set in a final since his opponent closed out last year’s Australian Open decider 6-0.
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Despite 34 wins from his past 35 grand slam matches, with his finals loss to Stan Wawrinka at Roland Garros his lone defeat at the majors previous year, Djokovic won’t allow himself to believe he has separated himself from his big-five rivals.
