A dose of irritation may not have been a bad thing as Murray finally held with an ace and for a spell began to stretch Djokovic, dictating more rallies and making less mistakes.
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The British No. 1 will face world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the men’s singles. Sue Barker presents action from the men’s singles final at Melbourne Park, where the first Grand Slam tournament of the year was brought to a conclusion. Laver watched Sunday’s proceedings in the stadium named after him.
That has been an area of clear advantage for the Serbian in their three previous meetings in Australian Open finals and he has also had a hex over Murray in 10 of their last 11 meetings.
It is far less likely.
The Serb claimed his second Grand Slam final 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 against a flat-footed Murray, who appeared drained by his four-set semi-final against David Ferrer.
Federer said he wasn’t surprised by the early blitz.
Already this year Djokovic has thrashed Rafael Nadal and trounced Roger Federer, and now he adds to that list an emphatic win over Murray, the world number two whom he has beaten 11 times in 12. The other man was Murray’s influential former coach Ivan Lendl. Again the match was a dogfight as the first two sets alone ran for well over two hours.
Born a week apart 28 years ago, Djokovic and Murray have contested three previous finals at the Melbourne Park with the Serbian emerging triumphant on each occasion. The level of applause loud for both, though slightly in favour of Murray. Thankfully Sears was well enough to return to the UK.
The older of the Murray brothers battled back from a set down to take the title alongside his playing partner Bruno Soares. Djokovic explained his below-par performance by saying he was exhausted from his five-set semi-final against Juan Martin del Potro.
The 17-year-old Anderson was the fifth Australian in the last decade to win the junior title, joining the likes of Nick Kyrgios (2013) and Bernard Tomic (2008) as champion. Sorry I couldn’t get it done.
Normally taking at least an hour to attend his briefing with reporters, Murray hurried into his press conference because he had a plane to catch Monday at 1 a.m. Melbourne time.
“I’ve seen Novak play this well before”, he said. “Just quite looking forward to getting home now”.
Djokovic does not need convincing that Murray will be hungrier than ever to reverse his current streak of four consecutive defeats in Grand Slam finals.
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By that time, Djokovic’s fourth-round struggle against Gilles Simon, when he was stretched to five sets and made 100 unforced errors, turned into a distant memory. The top seed dominated the first set entirely, quickly going up two breaks of serve – which Murray was unable to recover from. Djokovic erased it with a stunning cross-court backhand.
