Five things to learn from 2016 Australian Open

On the other hand, the defending champion also kept his record against Murray in Australian Open final by defeating the Briton for the fourth time in Men’s singles at the year’s first Grand Slam championship.

He has won four of the last five slams, 38 of his last 39 matches, and at this rate Roger Federer’s record 17 is within range for the 28-year-old.

From Serena Williams’ surprise upset, to Novak Djokovic’s regular opponent-trampling; from #HewBeauty to #TennisFixing, Australian Open 2016 was in the news for more than a few reasons.

The dominant Serb also extended his Grand Slam winning streak to 21 matches, and has not lost a match at the majors since he was defeated by Stan Wawrinka in last year’s French Open final at Roland Garros.

No man has managed to win all four majors, the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, in the same year since Rod Laver did it for a second time in 1969.

And so a Murray leaves Melbourne Park with a grand slam title, but not Andy, who joins his former coach Ivan Lendl as the second man to lose five finals at any single grand slam.

“I’m proud that I got into this position, just quite looking forward to getting home now”, Murray said.

When he returns from his break, the Scot will again set about finding a way to stop Djokovic, who has now beaten him four times in the Australian Open final and won 11 of their last 12 meetings.

“Now I just want to get home”.

“I’ll be on the next flight home”, Murray said as his voice cracked. Emerson played in the 1960s and won his Australian titles in the amateur era. It capped a women’s competition that was full of drama, with world No 2 Simona Halep knocked out in the first round and Naomi Osaka and Zhang Shuai enjoying a dream tournament along with Johanna Konta, who became the first British woman since 1983 to reach a Grand Slam semi-final.

“I can’t lie and say I didn’t think about it”, Djokovic said.

Before Mr Sears was cleared to fly back to Australia, Murray said he nearly put family before tennis.

Djokovic faced a break point in his opening service game but then went on a blazing run, breaking Murray’s serve twice to claim the opening set in 30 minutes. “No doubt that I’m playing the best tennis of my life in the past 15 months”.

It didn’t take long for the Australian Open to become controversial this year, although it had nothing to do with play on the courts.

Djokovic broke to take a 2-0 lead and, after he’d hit a perfectly placed drop shot, a fan yelled: “Give him a chance Novak!” But in a mesmerising two hours and eight minutes at Rod Laver Arena, the German confounded all expectations as she handed the world No 1 her first defeat after six previous victories in the Melbourne final.