Djokovic wins 6th Australian title; Murray loses 5th final

Novak Djokovic was humbled to join Roy Emerson as the only men to win six Australian Open titles after he beat Andy Murray 6-1 7-5 7-6 (7-3) at Melbourne Park on Sunday in a repeat of last year’s final.

The Serbian world number one swept to a 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 (7/3) victory in two hours, 53 minutes to hand Murray his fifth defeat in the Melbourne Park final.

Novak Djokovic has clinched a record-equalling sixth Australian Open title by once more beating Andy Murray in the decider.

Djokovic has won four of the last five Grand Slam events.

Won five titles (Adelaide, Miami, Estoril, Montreal and Vienna), in 2007 and made his first grand slam final at the U.S. Open, losing to Roger Federer.

Seventh-seeded Kerber’s three-set win on Saturday, which prevented Williams from securing her 22nd major title, is expected to result in the German player moving to No. 2 on the WTA Tour.

Djokovic 1-2 Murray is back in the contest and Djokovic is not helping himself by making some careless unforced errors.

Djokovic was serving for a two-set lead and despite consecutive double faults, he delivered, cementing his advantage when Murray’s backhand hit the net.

Welling up, Murray added: “And to my wife Kim, I’m sure she’s going to be watching back home just now”.

Djokovic was in imperious form at the start, putting in victor after winner to take the first set 6-1 in only 30 minutes.

Djokovic’s success was his 34th from his past 35 matches at the majors and the 28-year-old will again head to Paris in May with the chance to complete the career grand slam set.

Told in his post-match media conference that at least one fan from his home country suggested he’d easily win if he ran for the Serbian presidency, Djokovic smiled and said: “No. I’m an athlete”. Nestor won the first of his eight titles at the Australian Open in 2002 and first reached his first major final here in 1995, both times with partner Mark Knowles.

“You know, I think I didn’t hit my forehand particularly well at the beginning of the match”.

But Murray dug his heels in to reel off four straight games to lead 4-3 and then 5-4, but you never felt that Djokovic was capable of failing on a decisive point. You’ve been a legend. He has revealed to the world’s press that his team was approached by a possible fixing syndicate; his tribute to Lleyton Hewitt in a special montage was edited out thanks to a technical glitch; and an Italian paper has reported that Djokovic possibly threw a match against France’s Fabrice Santoro during the 2007 Paris Masters.

I don’t take anything for granted, even though I won last four out of five Grand Slams, played five finals out of five Grand Slams last that I played.

The two-hour long duel seemed to have drained the players, but the two top-ranked players continue their slugfest in the third set.

“I believe that I can win every match I play [and] I’m playing the tennis of my life in the last 15 months”.

Building on his momentum, Djokovic broke Murray in the first game of the third set, but the Dunblane native was not going down without a fight.

Murray pulled two points back but not a third as Djokovic served out with an ace to seal the title and when they met at the net Murray had two words for his conqueror: “too good”.