At Melbourne Park there will be
a physical trophy and a tacit one for the champion
.
When the match between Novak Djokovic and Stefanos Tsitsipas ends on Sunday, which will begin at 5.30 in Argentina and will be televised by ESPN and Star+, the winner will leave Australia as the champion and also as the number 1 in the world.
While both the position in the ranking and winning a Grand Slam will be a novelty for the Greek, the Serbian will recover the privileged position he used to have for
373 weeks
-a record- and will equal Rafael Nadal as the top winner of major tournaments with 22, ten of them on oceanic land.
With Rafa eliminated in the first round, Tsitsipas (4th ATP) avoided his greatest obstacle towards the final.
Nor did he collide with a top 10
: he beat Quentin Halys, Rinky Hijikata, Tallon Griekspoor, Jannik Sinner (the only one who led him to play five sets), Jiri Lehecka and Karen Khachanov (whom he beat this Friday 7-6, 6- 4, 6-7, 6-3) before meeting again with the executioner of that only Grand Slam final he played.
"I don't remember
it," said the 24-year-old tennis player about that definition in Paris.
On his side of the draw, Djokovic lost a set against the least expected rival, the Frenchman Enzo Couacaud (191st in the world), and crushed his most complex rival by ranking, Andrey Rublev (6th)
, in the quarterfinals
, by beating him by 6-1, 6-2 and 6-4.
In his last duel to fight for the title, against Tommy Paul (35th) with a 7-5, 6-1, 6-2, he had to overcome a more complex situation outside than inside the Rod Laver Arena court:
the accusation towards his father for supporting the Russians in the military attack on Ukraine
, which caused the absence of Srdjan Djokovic in the box.
"Of course it was not nice for me not to have him in the box during the semi-final. I hope I can have him in the final because he was misunderstood. There were a lot of Serbian flags and he thought he was taking a photo with a Serb. That's all. My father My whole family and myself have gone through several wars during the '90s.
We are against war, we will never support any kind of violence or war. We know how devastating it can be for a family or for the people of a country.
" , highlighted who last year was deported from Australia for not being vaccinated against the coronavirus.
He still isn't, but the requirements on the island have changed and he's ready to take advantage of it.
Djokovic, from deportee and "hated by all" to number 1?
This is how Djokovic left Australia last year.
Photo Mell CHUN / AFP
On Sunday night, January 15, 2022, accompanied by two government officials in black uniforms and after losing his last legal battle to avoid deportation,
Nole
left the hotel where he had been
"imprisoned"
in Australia for not being vaccinated. against covid-19 while waiting to be able to play the Grand Slam.
"What happened 12 months ago was not easy for me, neither for my team nor for my family. It is obviously disappointing to leave the country like that. These are events that you cannot forget.
It is one of those things that stays with you for the rest of your life
. It was something I had never experienced before and I hope I never do it again. But in the end, it is a valuable life experience for me", he reflected in the preview of his ATP 250 debut in Adelaide, one of the preparation tournaments for this Australian Open.
After that 2022 that began as a deportee -and without being able to try to revalidate his title- and
continued with his exclusion from the Masters 1,000 in Indian Wells, Miami, Montreal and Cincinnati and the US Open
(he had been a finalist the previous year), because the United States and Canada also did not allow him to enter because he was not vaccinated, he was able to return to Australia with the aim of "reaching the top in Melbourne" in 2023.
Although with each passing year the challenge of winning important titles is greater, because time takes its toll on him -
he is 35 years old and 20 in the professional circuit
- and there are younger and more talented rivals like the Spanish
Carlos Alcaraz
, whom an injury will take the throne from the ranking, Djokovic is still confident in his ability.
And he also shows it in the first Grand Slam of the season, where
he only dropped one set in six games
.
In addition,
this winning streak allows him not to lose in Melbourne since 2018 and accumulate 27 victories in a row
, surpassing the record he shared so far with the American Andre Agassi.
"Winning Grand Slams and being number one in the world, those are probably the highest peaks you can reach as a professional tennis player," said Djokovic, who is 10-2 against Tsitsipas and has won their last nine meetings.
Tennis, however, was partly overshadowed by the controversy surrounding Srdjan Djokovic.
Those photos together with supporters with pro-Russian flags and symbols -explicitly prohibited at the Australian Open- caused the Ukrainian ambassador to the country to ask the organizers to veto the entry of
Nole
's father , who, hours before the game, announced that He refused to go to the venue "so as not to disturb".
Novak Djokovic listens to the fans during their semifinal match.
Photo AP Photo/Dita Alangkara
Committing double faults and shots that stayed in the net or went long, especially on the backhand, the Serb allowed himself to equalize at 5-1, before fine-tuning his shots and taking the first set against Paul amid
booing from the crowd.
rostrum
.
Even without shining like in the previous rounds, Djokovic quickly set out to win in straight sets against an opponent so far inexperienced in the final rounds of a Grand Slam.
It will be different what will happen to him on Sunday, when he will face again the person who put him in trouble in the final of Roland Garros in 2021. "
It was the first time that I came back from 2-0 in a Grand Slam final
, it was also his first end. He is one of the most interesting boys on the circuit,
with his long hair
. Let the best player win," he said.
Tsitsipas' revenge: "I couldn't be more prepared"
Stefanos Tsitsipas greets Novak Djokovic in the lost final of Roland Garros 2021. Photo AP Photo/Thibault Camus
Stefanos Tsitsipas was about to turn eight when Novak Djokovic won his first title in his first ATP final.
Almost seventeen years later, the Greek has a second chance to beat the Serbian in a Grand Slam definition,
with an extra prize
: being the new number 1 in the world.
Still unbeaten this year
, the third seed in the tournament broke his ceiling in Melbourne where he had lost three semifinals and will face the duel wanting revenge for what happened at Roland Garros 2021, where Nole came back two sets.
"I couldn't be more prepared for this moment,"
he emphasized.
"I'm playing great tennis, enjoying myself. I don't see so many downturns or negativity, even if things don't work out. I'm very optimistic, that's something I was missing in my game," celebrated who has won
nine titles
since 2018 in Stockholm and reached its best ranking (3rd) in 2021.
If he manages to lift his first major trophy -so far his greatest achievements are the two Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo and the 2019 ATP Finals, the year in which he also defeated Djokovic, Nadal and Federer-, Tsitsipas would manage to be number 1 in the ATP for first time.
"
I like that number. It's about you. It's unique. It's 1
-he valued-. These are the moments I've been working hard for."
Whether it's Tsitsipas or Djokovic,
the crown may not last long in their hands because Carlos Alcaraz, who at the age of 19 reached the top after winning the US Open on September 11, could recover it at the ATP in Buenos Aires
.
The Spaniard will appear this Monday in second place in the ATP ranking with 6,730 points -in Melbourne he defended 90 that he obviously lost-, behind the 7,070 that the Serb will have if he wins or the 6,995 that the Greek will have in case of victory.
Whoever loses the final will be third, with 6,270 or 6,195, respectively.
look also
Australian Open: Djokovic, with his head in the final, faced the controversy with his father
Australian Open: Djokovic forcefully beat Paul and will play the final against Tsitsipas for glory and world number 1
