Djokovic Beats Murray to Win Fifth Title Down Under

Novak Djokovic showed why he is the class of the ATP World Tour right now, blowing past red-hot Andy Murray 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-0 for his fifth-career Australian Open title, the first man to do so in the Open Era. The win also marked the third-time he has defeated Murray in the Melbourne final.

“I’m so privileged and honored and grateful to be standing here for the fifth time, to be in an elite group of players, with legends of our sport out here watching,” said Djokovic as he was presented the trophy from Australian tennis legend Roy Emerson.

The first two sets were extremely even, and took 152 minutes to complete. Both players broke twice in the first set, but Djokovic was able to hit some nice forehand winners in the tiebreak to escape the opening frame. Murray snatched momentum back though, breaking twice and converting 74 percent of his first serves into points to win the second set in a breaker.

With the match all even at one set a piece, Murray broke in Djokovic’s opening service game and took a 2-0 lead in the third set. Something clicked from there, though, as the Serb shook off ankle and thumb injuries to win 12 of the next 13 games to close out the four-set victory.

“I had a crisis at the end of the second, beginning of the third, I needed some time to regroup,” said Djokovic. “I just had weakness; I couldn’t call for medical because I had no reason.”

After losing that service game to open the third set, Djokovic had a trainer attend to his thumb injury. From that point, the Serb would not be stopped.

Obviously I had opportunities in the first three sets,” said a reflective Murray. “In the fourth set, I mean, he was just ripping everything. Returns he was hitting on the baseline. Once he got up a break, he just loosened up and was just going for his shots. I couldn’t recover.

Novak has won five times here now, there’s no disgrace, obviously, in losing to him.”

Djokovic finished with 53 winners to just 40 unforced errors, including a nearly flawless fourth set.

Murray now drops to 2-6 in Grand Slam finals, but his run to the title match in Melbourne was good enough to push him into the top four of the rankings.