ANDY Murray has to play the patient game, after being beaten in another Grand Slam final. He was outplayed and outclassed on Sunday in Melbourne, losing the men’s singles final at the Australian Open to the Serbian Novak Djokovic.
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| CELEBRATION: The Djokovic winning team pose for the cameras |
It took Djokovic, the world no.3 just over two and a half hours to wrap a comfortable 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 success, the scoreline sadly backing up the fact that Murray didn’t bring his A-game to the court on Sunday. For Djokovic, it’s his second Grand Slam title, his first since winning the Australian Open himself back in 2008. Then, it failed to kick-start his career – but following recent Davis Cup success with Serbia, he may now have the confidence and conviction to threaten Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer on a regular basis.
Djokovic has largely cantered his way to the final. His performances against Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych and Federer in the quarter-finals and semi-finals were simply majestic. Novak is currently playing the best tennis of his life, looking almost a completely different figure to the one that kept choking on the big stage in 2009 and 2010. Finally, that shock 2008 second round loss at SW19 to retired Russian Marat Safin seems to be out of his system. This was the Djokovic we knew from when he burst onto the scene as a promising teenager. Thanks to an injury for world No.1 Nadal, which denied him the chance at the ‘Super Slam’ and the early exit of Robin Soderling, world No.5 Murray had also been largely untroubled on his way to Sunday’s showdown. However, the Scot’s marathon semi-final with Spaniard David Ferrer on Friday looked to have caught up with him 48 hours later. His returns were weak, the lob shot he liked to play simply wasn’t coming off and his service game, almost unbreakable throughout the tournament was effortlessly exposed by the determined Djokovic. Once the Serb broke Murray’s serve to clinch the first set, the game looked up as a contest.
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| AGONY: It was third time unlucky on Sunday for Andy Murray |
He stormed into a 5-0 advantage in the second set, and fair play to Murray, he never gave in and stirred a couple of brief rallies. However, he simply couldn’t keep the momentum up throughout against an in-form and frankly, better player. The Scot couldn’t hide his disappointment at the end, but he seemed very phlegmatic in defeat afterwards, admitting the better player had won. This was his third appearance in a Grand Slam final and once again, he fell at the final hurdle; yet to win a set in a major final. Fingers crossed that Murray can continue his form for the rest of the year though; 2010 went downhill once he made his final appearance in Melbourne.
Once again, Serena Williams was missing a major tournament through injury and when Venus had to pull out of a third round match, the opportunity to win a Grand Slam in the women’s game was wide open. Justine Henin couldn’t take her chance, and after a nagging elbow injury affected her in a third round loss to Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, the Belgian announced her retirement from tennis again; this time for good. She follows Amelie Mauresmo and Elena Dementieva to have given up the game in the past eighteen months. Jelena Jankovic will surely head the same way very soon, after another pitiful display Down Under. Even Maria Sharapova looked back to her best, until a fourth round exit. In the end, it was Kim Clistjers who marched through to take her maiden Australian Open final, winning a hard-fought final against China’s Na Li in three sets. Li was playing in her first major final and showed no nerves, by winning a closely matched first set. As the match wore on however, Clistjers settled into her stride and stay more composed on the decisive points to wrap up back-to-back Grand Slam titles. Once again, the world no.1 failed to win, with Caroline Wozinacki losing in the semi-finals to the impressive Li.
Congratulations to Novak Djokovic and Kim Clistjers on the triumphs in the first Grand Slam of the year, after an absorbing fortnight of tennis. For Andy Murray and Britain, the long wait for a Grand Slam winner goes on a little longer. Ah well, there’s always Wimbledon in the summer!
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