Australian Open 2011: Novak Djokovic Is The New Champion

Novak Djokovic is the new Australian Open champion. He defeated Andy Murray 6-4, 6-2, 6-3. On Sunday night, Djokovic did little wrong and Murray did little right. Confidence was written large on his face and on his shots. He did not allow Murray to get into any rhythm and Murray too contributed by making uncharacteristic errors. Djokovic was the leader from start to finish and his superiority was in clear view.

The match started with comfortable hold for Djokovic and hardships for Murray. The pattern became clear very soon. Djokovic was playing the attacking shots and Murray was mostly defending. Murray has generally been a slow starter. Whether nerves were there in the beginning or not, errors were seen to be unusually more. He attacked forehand on important points which at that time turned out to be the less consistent of the two. He took 13 minutes and 52 seconds to hold  his first serve. But as usually happens, after winning such a tough game, the momentum shifted and the next service game of Djokovic went to deuce. At the change over, the initial nervousness, if any existed, was over and both the players started playing their normal shots.

Djokovic was hitting ground strokes with an average speed of 127  as against 112 of Andy Murray. That was what was expected too. Andy Murray was not bending sufficiently on slices and netting a few of them. When Andy committed double fault while serving in the crucial tenth game, Djokovic sensed his chance. He went on offensive and won the set 6-4. Andy served a poor 44% first serves as against 63 % by Djokovic. He committed 14 unforced errors and seven winners. Djokovic committed 8 winners and 15 unforced errors.

In the very first service game of the second set, Andy Murray committed his usual foolhardiness of playing a drop shot on the break point and lost the game. His game went to pieces after that. He started hitting the ball over the base line repeatedly and went down 0-5. When he broke for the first time to make the score 2-5, it was too late. Djokovic immediately broke back and won the set 6-2. Djokovic served at 67% to 53% by Murray. He hit 8 winners to 5, 3 aces to 2 and only 6 unforced errors to 13 by Murray.

Andy Murray broke in the very first game of the third set and raised hopes of come back. But he lost his very next serve committing unforced errors. Andy Murray footwork was very poor. He was repeatedly unable to put the left foot in front which resulted in ball sailing over the baseline. When he was broken at 3-4, match was virtually over. Djokovic won the set 6-3. He was the deserving champion.  

Andy Murray will have to live much longer with the criticism that he is not a Grand Slam Champion material. We see a different Andy Murray in Grand Slam finals from the one that reaches the finals. All the hard work he puts in to reach the finals, he squanders in a single night to become a pauper again. As regards Novak Djokovic, he has now made the tennis world three dimensional and a better one to live in.