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Djokovic domination: Novak knocks over Nadal in straight sets

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Expert
27th January, 2019
12

Novak Djokovic has won a seventh Australian Open, routing Rafael Nadal in a largely uncompetitive straight sets victory 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.

His 15th grand slam title in total, Djokovic played a stunningly high level for just over two hours on court, with Nadal simply having no answers.

Djokovic only made nine unforced errors throughout the match, compared to 34 winners, and it told on Nadal, who didn’t seem to be on his game from the opening points.

Nadal was broken during his first service game, and it set the tempo for the entire three sets, with the Spaniard never able to get back into it.

Nadal fought but couldn’t overcome the depth and defence from around the back of the court from Djokovic, who turned into a brick wall and just wouldn’t miss anything.

Compared to nine unforced errors from Djokovic, Nadal made 28 throughout the match as things went from bad to worse.

Djokovic hung onto his single break during the first set, then rammed home the advantage to take out the second set with a double break.

At one point early in the second set it looked like Nadal was slowly fighting back into the match, but then he was broken again, and again before the second set was rounded out in dominant fashion by the Serbian.

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The rout was effectively complete when Djokovic took a break early in the third set. Despite facing a little bit of pressure on two of his last three service games for the first time in the match, he pulled them both out of the fire with enormous hitting and great depth, before polishing the match off.

The victory means Djokovic has now won three straight grand slams, following his success at Wimbledon and the US Open last year, giving the world No.1 a chance to hold all four at the same time when the French Open rolls around later this year.

Final score

Novak Djokovic 6 6 6
Rafael Nadal 3 2 3

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