A tearful Novak Djokovic described his Australian Open triumph as the largest and maximum difficult victory of his profession after he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-3, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) to win his record-extended tenth name in Melbourne.
“Only my team and family know what we have been through these past 4-5 weeks,” Djokovic mentioned. “This is probably the biggest victory in my life considering the circumstances.”
A 12 months after being deported from Australia after making an attempt to go into the rustic with an exemption from Covid vaccination, the 35-year-old returned to win this name. Despite coping with a hamstring factor for the reason that get started of the event, Djokovic dropped only one set in his seven suits. After the general, Djokovic broke down in tears whilst embracing his crew in his participant’s field.
“When I went into my field, I simply suppose emotionally collapsed there and teared up with particularly my mom and my brother, once I gave them a hug, as a result of as much as that second I used to be now not permitting myself to be distracted with issues off the courtroom or no matter was once taking place in coping with an harm, issues taking place off the courtroom, as smartly, that would simply had been a large disturbance to my focal point, to my recreation.”
Djokovic’s tally of 22 grand slam titles moves him level with Rafael Nadal as the joint men’s all-time grand slam record holder. He also returns to world No. 1 for the first time since June, replacing US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz.
While Djokovic admitted that the scrutiny and skepticism around his hamstring injury affected him during the tournament, Goran Ivanisavic, his coach, believes that most players would not have competed at the tournament with the injury he had.
Ivanisevic said that “97% of the players, on Saturday when you get the results of the MRI, you go straight to the referee’s office and pull out of the tournament. But not him. He is from other space. His brain is working differently.”
Djokovic’s father, Srdjan Djokovic, didn’t go back to look at his son on-court after Djokovic and his crew determined that media consideration hadn’t sufficiently died down within the wake of Srdjan Djokovic taking an image with pro-Vladimir Putin spectators.
Srdjan Djokovic was once nonetheless on-site, and he embraced his son through the participant locker room after the fit, however Djokovic mentioned that his father was once unhappy about now not with the ability to watch.
“In some way I’m additionally unhappy that he was once now not there, provide, within the stands. But he was once all through all the event, so it is nice. In the top now we have a cheerful finishing,” Djokovic mentioned.