Murray, Soares capture Australian Open men’s doubles title
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic smiles during a press conference ahead of the men’s singles final at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016.
“I started to get a slightly better read on his serve later on and that was the key”, Murray, beaten by Djokovic in last year’s final, said in a courtside interview.
The finalists career head-to-head would suggest that Djokovic ought to be the commanding favourite, he has a 21-9 record over Murray and has lost only once in the 11 meetings between the two since the 2013 Wimbledon final.
“She is going out there to try to win again another Grand Slam, making history”, Kerber said.
“It’s unfortunate… probably the most heartbroken I’ve felt on court, but that’s what it is”, Raonic said following the match.
JAMIE MURRAY won his first Grand Slam men’s doubles title at the Australian Open today – and his brother Andy was there to join in the celebrations.
Raonic, bidding to reach his first major final, was hampered by an injury to his right adductor muscle from the end of the third set and by the fifth he was severely impaired. “That’s something I’ve learned over the years of playing”.
In his on-court speech shortly after his victory alongside new partner Bruno Soares, an emotional Jamie told his brother: “Andy you should be in bed, I don’t know why you’re here taking photos”. “Maybe that happens tomorrow or whenever I feel like I’m ready to face that situation”. But his unforced error count over four hours hit 78, countered by 72 winners and just one break of Murray’s serve.
“I’m in a much better state (than) where I was 18 months ago when I was in my first semi-final of a Grand Slam”, said Raonic, the 2014 Wimbledon semi-finalist.
“But as time went on I realised I could be quite good at this”.
Murray’s big task now is to recover well after his physical five sets yesterday and come up with a plan to beat the world No1.
Murray said he sensed Raonic slowing down, but had to keep his mind on his own side of the court.
In ideal health, the 13th-seeded Raonic would have had quite a challenge finishing off Murray, who has a 19-7 career record in five-set matches. He sought treatment from the trainer again at another changeover. Raonic took a medical timeout for an apparent groin problem at 1-2 in the fourth and was soon broken at love in his 3-3 service game. I think I was forcing a little bit too much…. He’s also won three out of the last four grand slams, and this is his fifth consecutive slam final. He pushed him close at the French Open in the semi-finals, and he has had his chances in other encounters, but somehow Djokovic always found a way to win. She also hasn’t dropped a set in six matches this tournament, something she’s never done in 15 previous appearances at Melbourne Park.
“We’ve played a bunch of times here”, Murray said.
Advanced to his fourth Australian Open final in 2015 only to lose to Djokovic in four sets.
“It doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past really”.
“I’m really, really happy with our work the last couple of weeks”. Nadal had this to say after the loss: “I played against a player who did everything perfectly”.