Djokovic Continues 2018 Dominance Into The New Year At The Australian Open

Look I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the biggest tennis fan, I usually follow the 4 majors and I play casually, so if you came here for some in depth analysis I’m not your guy. But I also feel that tennis is much like golf and that’s if you follow the 4 majors then you know 80% of what happened in the sport that year. I might be wrong, but for the most part I feel like that’s right. I’ll also let it be known that Novak Djokovic is the guy I pull for the most, now that Andy Murray’s career is basically over, while Rafael Nadal is probably the guy I dislike the most because all he does is win on clay. So if I sound bias at times that’s why.

Novak Djokovic & Rafael Nadal

Photo Credit: Sky Sports

So onto the Australian Open, the sport’s first major of the calendar year, obviously because it’s only January. Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal this morning in the final, not dropping a single set 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. Djokovic dominated Nadal much like he did the rest of the field on his way to a record 7th Australian Open title. Djokovic only dropped a total of 2 sets the entire tournament throughout his 7 matches. This impressive display at the Australian Open dovetails off of Djokovic’s return to dominance at the end of 2018 where he capped off the year with the last 2 majors.

This return to form by Djokovic has been impressive and at least for me unexpected. Once Djokovic completed his career grandslam in 2016 at the French Open, Djokovic would struggle for the next 2 years, mostly due to injury. I thought there was a chance that we had seen the last of Djokovic at his best after his rough 2017 season and a bad start to 2018 which was followed by elbow surgery, but Djokovic bounced back and won the last two majors of the year with Wimbledon and the US Open in 2018. With today’s win at the Australian Open Djokovic has now won 3 straight majors, which he has now done 3 times in his career. Today’s title also puts him at 15 total career major victories which now puts him in 3rd place all time. Of course the 2 ahead of him are Federer with 20 titles and Rafael Nadal with 17. So with Novak Djokovic back to his best will he have the chance to surpass either of these two greats? I sure hope so.

Photo Credit: ABC