Serbia’s Novak Djokovic celebrates after profitable his ultimate match towards Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti. Photograph: REUTERS
SYDNEY:
Novak Djokovic returns to Melbourne Park seeking to roll again the apparently inexorable tide of the “Sincaraz” period and produce an Australian Open triumph that may set up him as probably the most profitable Grand Slam champion of all time.
The Serbian clinched his twenty fourth main title on the U.S. Open in late 2023, however Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have since dominated the Grand Slams with a model of fast-paced tennis that has blown their rivals off the courtroom.
Djokovic, who will likely be 39 in Might, just isn’t impervious to the bodily toll 20 years on the tour has taken on his physique, however solely probably the most foolhardy observer has ever written off one of many mentally hardest gamers to play the sport.
To maneuver out of a tie with Margaret Court docket on 24 Grand Slam singles titles within the Australian’s personal again yard, although, he appears prone to must beat one or each of the “New Two” on the enterprise finish of the event.
Final 12 months, the final survivor of the “Massive Three” beat Alcaraz within the quarter-finals solely to retire from his semi-final towards Alex Zverev with a hamstring tear.
He reached the semi-finals of all 4 majors in 2025, dropping to Sinner in Paris and at Wimbledon, in addition to Alcaraz in New York.
“I misplaced three out of 4 slams in semis towards these guys, so that they’re simply too good, enjoying on a extremely excessive stage,” he mentioned after his loss at Flushing Meadows.
“Finest-of-five makes it very, very tough for me to play them. Notably if it is like the tip levels of a Grand Slam.”
‘Abundance of warning’
Djokovic pulled out of the warm-up event in Adelaide in January however Australian Open event director Craig Tiley moved rapidly to douse any query over the 38-year-old turning up in Melbourne.
“He’ll be right here to play 100%,” Tiley mentioned on the weekend.
“Simply out of the abundance of warning, he simply needed to ensure he is 100% prepared. He is received this occasion 10 occasions. He desires to go for that document, and that is the place that he has the most effective probability of doing it.”
Certainly, Tiley mentioned, it was extremely unlikely to be Djokovic’s final Australian Open both, tallying with the participant’s personal ambition to defend his Olympic title in Los Angeles in 2028.
Djokovic’s battered physique might need different plans, although, and his probabilities of going deep will most likely depend on him staying wholesome into the second week at Melbourne Park.
He managed ATP titles in Geneva and Athens final 12 months to take his tally to 101 however his finest efforts on the longer Masters occasions had been a Miami ultimate and a semi in Shanghai.
Will probably be his twenty first look in the primary draw on the Australian Open, a run that began as a qualifier in 2005 when he was thumped by eventual champion Marat Safin.
Melbourne’s giant neighborhood of followers with Serbian heritage will guarantee he has loads of assist at a event the place he has in any other case been extra admired than beloved.
There isn’t a doubting he’ll go down as one of many event’s nice champions, nonetheless, particularly as his 10 triumphs got here within the “Massive Three” period when Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer had been additionally at their peak.
