By Steve Flink
@SFlinko
Final round contests at the major championships are a forum made for those who recognize that there is so much more at stake than there is anywhere else in tennis. These are landmark occasions, moments when great players define themselves forever, and opportunities that must be exploited under almost unbearable pressure. Only those with the stoutest of hearts, the strongest of minds and absolute clarity of vision can survive at the very end of fortnights that can irrevocably change their lives. Grand Slam tournament finals are of another realm, thoroughly testing the mettle of the protagonists, placing the players under a microscope while the sports world examines their every move.
Few players know their way around this rarefied territory better than Novak Djokovic. The 33-year-old Serbian was demonstrably aware of what was required of him at yet another monumental moment in his illustrious tennis career as he stepped on court to confront Daniil Medvedev in the final of the Australian Open on the hard courts of Melbourne. Djokovic fully understood how well Medvedev has played in recent months. The Russian had won 20 consecutive matches heading into his critical appointment with Djokovic, including significant triumphs late in the 2020 season at the Paris Masters 1000 tournament and the ATP Finals in London.
Moreover, aside from one five set match against Djokovic’s countryman Filip Krajinovic in the third round when the Russian did not concede a game in the final set, Medvedev blitzed through the rest of his Australian Open draw without losing a set or even being forced into a tie-break. In his remarkable 20 match victory streak dating back to October, Medvedev had engineered twelve wins over players ranked in the top ten, including a 6-3, 6-3 triumph over Djokovic in their London round robin meeting.
In other words, Djokovic fully understood that he was facing a surging player in the sport and the fellow who was playing the best tennis of anyone in the world across that span. And yet, Djokovic also realized that it did not matter that his career head to head record against the 6’6” Russian was only 4-3. It was not overly consequential that Medvedev had actually taken three of his last four meetings with Djokovic. Major finals are simply not the same. Great players rise to meet those moments while lesser ones shrink under the weight of expectations and high tension.
The Novak Djokovic who showed up for this title round duel was driven by extraordinarily powerful private engines in a single-minded quest to capture his ninth Australian Open crown and his 18th major title. He was not going to leave the Rod Laver Arena without going full tilt and making Medvedev play the match of his life to beat him.
In the end, Djokovic was as unstoppable as ever on his favorite court in the world, dismissing Medvedev 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 in one hour and 53 minutes. This was the fastest final he has ever played at a major, and that fact is made all the more extraordinary because it was the 28th he has played over the course of a sterling career.
The reason it was so one-sided and swift was because Djokovic broke Medvedev’s spirit midway through this final, and the Serbian put the clamps down as only he could. Djokovic—as was the case all through the tournament—served stupendously. He was particularly accurate going down the T in both the deuce and ad courts against Medvedev. Furthermore, he mixed up his game adroitly, drawing Medvedev forward with soft backhand chips and drop shots, changing the trajectory and stepping up the pace off the ground, out-maneuvering his opponent in every facet of the game. In turn, he was giving away very little, making only 17 unforced errors while Medvedev sprayed the court with 30.
Meanwhile, Djokovic returned serve with customary depth and consistency. Medvedev put in 64% of his first serves but was still broken seven times. Djokovic was even more aggressive than usual on second serve returns and he demoralized Medvedev by keeping so many first serve returns in play. While Djokovic methodically picked his adversary apart with purpose, precision and uncanny instincts, Medvedev unraveled emotionally and never really recovered his emotional equilibrium.
Yet the Russian accepted his defeat with equanimity, realizing that Djokovic had beaten him to a pulp, giving his prodigious rival full marks. As Medvedev said, “I feel like this was the kind of match I won throughout the tournament that he won today. I was there in the first set. I was up a break in the second, but in the end I lost in three sets where I didn’t play bad but I didn’t play my highest level. Probably he made his game so good today that I couldn’t stay at my best level. Today with Novak I felt like I wanted to mix up haunts and to try to do something different, but I felt like he took all the time from me.”
That assessment is very accurate. Djokovic came out of the gates with gusto and put Medvedev in an immediate bind. He was flawless over the first three games of the match, starting the proceedings with an ace down the T and then holding at 15. Medvedev did not miss a first serve in the second game but the premier returner in the game still broke his tall rival with excellent returning and superior play from the backcourt. When Djokovic held at love for 3-0 with an ace and an impeccable serve-and-volley combination, the Serbian seemed on his way to a first set victory.
At that stage, Djokovic had won 12 of 15 points and his ground game was unerring. But Medvedev served two aces on his way to holding for 1-3 and then broke at 15 on four unforced errors from the top seed including an errant overhead taken on the bounce at 15-40. Medvedev promptly held at love for 3-3. In gaining level ground and sweeping three consecutive games, Medvedev had replicated his opponent’s feat of securing three games in a row at the cost of only three points.
The momentum had shifted, but Djokovic righted his ship in the seventh game. On the first point, he drew Medvedev in with a backhand drop shot to set up a well executed lob volley. Medvedev chased it down but had no play off the backhand. Djokovic eventually held at 15 for 4-3 by anticipating Medvedev’s forehand pass and punching a backhand volley into a wide open space. Medvedev answered with a comfortable hold at 15 for 4-4, closing out that game with an ace.
On his way to a 6-5 lead, Djokovic dropped only one point in his next two service games. A tie-break seemed almost inevitable. But Djokovic opened the twelfth game with a scintillating forehand inside in winner. He then made a typically deep return that created an avenue for him to get to the net. Medvedev missed a forehand passing shot. It was 0-30. A backhand passing shot winner down the line from Djokovic brought him to triple set point at 0-40.
Medvedev, however, seemed undismayed. A big first serve set up a stinging forehand that was unmanageable for Djokovic. A service winner from Medvedev made it 30-40. Once more, Medvedev connected with a first serve, but Djokovic blocked a backhand return deep down the middle. Medvedev apprehensively drove a forehand into the net.
With his second service break, Djokovic had sealed the first set 7-5. In the Open Era, there has been no better front runner in tennis than the Serbian, who is now 827-36 for his career after winning the first set. But, surprisingly, taking the first set in this final did not give Djokovic the expected lift he wanted at the start of the second.
Suddenly, he lost confidence in his customarily rock solid backhand. Three unforced errors off that side cost Djokovic his serve and gave Medvedev a 1-0 second set lead. It seemed entirely possible that the Russian might have a new lease on life after his auspicious start to the second set.
But that was not the case. With Medvedev serving at 30-30 in the second game, Djokovic’s deep backhand return down the middle off a first serve coaxed an error from the 25-year-old. Another top of the line return from the Serbian gave him the opening to drive a forehand inside in with interest. Medvedev ha no answer. It was 1-1. Djokovic held on for 2-1 from 15-30 and then broke again for 3-1 as Medvedev missed wildly on a backhand down the line. Djokovic surged to 4-1, closing out that fifth game with an ace down the T.
From a break down, Djokovic had taken four consecutive games, winning 16 of 23 points in the process. Medvedev managed to hold at love for 2-4, but Djokovic was soaring now, determined to put himself in front two sets to love, in no mood to allow an imploding Medvedev back into the match.
In the seventh game, Medvedev fought back from being behind 40-15 and reached deuce, but Djokovic released a pair of service winners down the T to reach 5-2. Baffled and infuriated, Medvedev smashed his racket on the court. Serving to stay in the second set, Medvedev double faulted for 15-30. At 30-40, he missed his first serve and Djokovic pounced, sending a penetrating forehand return down the middle, rushing Medvedev into a mistake.
Djokovic had thus sealed the set 6-2, and now served first in the third set. He double faulted twice on his way to 15-40 but calmly worked his way out of that corner, sweeping four points in a row, drawing error after error from Medvedev with purposefully constructed points. At deuce in the second game, Medvedev double faulted, foolishly going for a mammoth second serve and missing it flagrantly. On break point, Djokovic kept his passing shot low and lured Medvedev into a forehand volley error. Going six for six on first serves in the third game, Djokovic rolled to 3-0. From that service break down in the second set, the Serbian had won nine of the last ten games.
Medvedev held on a couple of times from there, and then made a concerted effort to break Djokovic in the seventh game. The effort went unrewarded. Down 15-30, Djokovic sent out another unanswerable first serve to the Medvedev backhand. Under duress on the following point, defending in his inimitable fashion, Djokovic’s stellar backhand landed on the baseline and provoked Medvedev into an error. Going backhand to backhand on the following point, Djokovic was the better man. Medvedev missed. It was 5-2 for Djokovic.
Soon Djokovic put the finishing touches on a highly professional and first rate performance. He commenced the final game with a forehand winner and kept pounding away as well as defending with his singular skills. At 30-40, Djokovic came forward and closed out the account in style with his own version of the sky hook. With that flourish, he completed a 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 victory over a formidable rival.
After the match, Djokovic said, “It has definitely been the most challenging Grand Slam tournament I ever had with everything that was happening with injury, off the court stuff, quarantines. It has been, least to say, a roller coaster ride in the last four weeks.”
He turned to his feelings about the importance of winning majors, having just closed within two titles of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. The Swiss and the Spaniard each have 20 titles, but once more Djokovic is closing in.
He said, “When you’re a young tennis player, I think 99.9% of the players—kids that get a racket in their hands—start dreaming about what they want to achieve. It’s a Grand Slam tournament, winning a major. So of course I tried to remind myself, pinch myself, of how important this is. I do enjoy the success every single time even more because I know that the longer time passes, the more difficult it’s going to be for me to get my hands on the major trophy because you have, of course, new young players coming up that are as hungry as you are, maybe even hungrier. And they are challenging me, Roger and Rafa. I mean, I don’t feel like I’m old or tired or anything like that. But I know that biologically and realistically things are different than they were ten years ago for me. I have to be smarter with my schedule and peak at the right time. The Slams are the tournaments were I want to be able to perform my best.”
He need not worry about the future for a while. Instead, Djokovic can be proud of raising his record in Australian Open finals to an astonishing 9-0, a feat second only to Nadal’s 13-0 record in Roland Garros title round meetings. This was Djokovic’s second so called “three-peat” in Melbourne. He has now won six of the last ten majors since the middle of 2018.
The way I look at it, this one belongs in a category of its own among the many majestic moments in his career. Djokovic was frightened when he fell during his third round assignment against Taylor Fritz. At the time, he was leading two sets to love and was locked at 1-1 in the third set. Djokovic had torn an abdominal oblique muscle. He lost the third and fourth sets and looked physically wasted, but somehow summoned the strength to win the fifth.
Still, Djokovic was not sure he would be fit to compete in the fourth round against Milos Raonic. As he reflected, “It did not look realistically that I could actually play.”
But Djokovic moved past Raonic in four sets after not practicing on his off day. Following the same pattern of resting and recuperating, he then ousted Alexander Zverev, coming from behind to win 6-7 (6), 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (6) in the most gripping battle he waged in the tournament. Then Djokovic knocked out the qualifier Aslan Karatsev in straight sets. His freedom of movement was at last close to normal. And then, of course, he capped it all off with the gratifying victory over Medvedev.
Medvedev lost for the second time in a major final, taking a much more severe beating than he did at the U.S. Open in 2019 when Nadal toppled him in five sets. But the Russian now moves to a career high at No. 3 in the world. Djokovic, of course, resides deservedly at No. 1. Soon he will surpass Federer for the most career weeks spent in the preeminent position. That will happen in March.
Achieving that milestone will make Djokovic alter his priorities in terms of his schedule so he can keep chasing Nadal and Federer for the record at the majors. That is just the way it should be. Novak Djokovic is a man very comfortable in those surroundings, a player in perpetual motion, and a champion who redefines himself every time he steps on a tennis court.
Steve Flink is a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the author of the books “The Pete Sampras: Greatness Revisited” for sale and download here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1937559947/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_YZ5G9J6HKCCDX6746CAC and “The Greatest Tennis Matches of All Time” for sale and download here https://www.amazon.com/dp/0942257936/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_5EDQPRZNGNWDDQ1Z7DN3 via @amazon
