12 months after being expelled from Australia due to his vaccination status, Novak Djokovic has recovered the tennis sits below, winning his 10th Australian Open title and returning to number 1 in the ATP world rankings. After suffering a hamstring injury in the opening rounds, the 35-year-old Serbian looked increasingly dominant as the tournament progressed. After losing just one set en route to the final, Djokovic beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6:3 7:6 7:6 in the final on Sunday, after which the Serb broke down in tears as he celebrated with his family and team.
His 22nd Grand Slam title puts Djokovic level with last year’s Australian Open champion Rafael Nadal in the race for a special place in the tennis history books. A year younger and less injury-prone than his Spanish rival, Djokovic looks likely to come out on top in terms of Grand Slam victories – a category where Nadal and Djokovic have just two women left to beat. With 23 major titles, Serena Williams has the most victories in the so-called Open Era, which began in 1968, when Grand Slam tournaments allowed professional players to compete against each other. Australia’s Margaret Court has 24 Grand Slam singles titles to her name, but her track record dates back to a different era, which is why she’s often left out of conversations.
Judging by the dominance that Nadal and Djokovic still exude when in top form, it seems very likely that at least one of them will go on to break the records of Williams and Court, a feat that seemed unthinkable before the “Big three” entered the tennis circuit. When Pete Sampras retired in 2003, his record 14 Grand Slam titles seemed like a record for the ages, but it ultimately took Roger Federer only six years to surpass it. Conversely, Federer already had 12 major titles to his name when Djokovic won his first title at the Australian Open in 2008. At the time, almost no one would have predicted that the Serbian would break just about every world record in the sport. “Of course, I have professional goals and ambitions. These are Grand Slam tournaments and being world No. 1,” Djokovic said after his latest triumph. “These two peaks probably in the world of professional tennis have always been there as goals for me. So, I definitely want to write more about the history of this sport.”
