Brand new year, same old winner? I guess (and hopefully) this will be 2016 motto, as Nole's outstanding level of tennis doesn't look like it'll decrease any time soon.
I mean, he's starting to celebrate Grand Slam titles like Masters 1000 ones or something. And he keeps doing so because he just can't stop winning. With today's title in Melbourne, Djokovic clinched his sixth - fifth this decade - Australian Open and 11th Grand Slam victory - also the sixth since Wimbledon'14. In addition Nole has missed just one Major final since Roland Garros'14, being currently in a five-final streak in the category.
It's actually kind of funny that the only Grand Slam tournament where Nole has lost in the first round (not once but twice, in both 2005 and 2006) is also the one where he has the best results - and will probably be the most victorious tennis player ever, after tying up with Roy Emerson as six-time champion in Melbourne. Nonetheless, he first reached a Major quarter-finals (2006) and semi-finals (2007) in Roland Garros and he's still yet to conquer Paris; will this be his year? Hope so!
It's a fact that Nole struggled with Simon in the fourth round, but defeating such a consistent player like the Frenchman plus 100 unforced errors is quite remarkable. He wasn't at his best, but he then began to improve his level and those first two sets in the semis versus Federer were something out of this world. One can defeat Roger from time to time and Nole is doing it a lot since 2011, but being 6-1 6-2 up versus the four-time AO champ and 17 Grand Slam winner perfectly shows the Serb's supremacy against every single player nowadays.
Novak Djokovic is undeniably the currently best player in the circuit and of the decade, and if he does win Roland Garros I'll start to consider him the best ever. He may have less Grand Slams than others but with +10 Majors, a Career Slam and a positive head-to-head versus every Big 4 member is probably the best records one can achieve. I have grown up watching Federer playing the tennis of his life and I am quite a fan of his career, but it sometimes annoys me that some people can't recognize Djokovic's achievements as better than Fed's. For example, the Swiss has a miserable h2h versus Nadal and now a negative one versus Nole too and one can't deny most of his Major titles came in finals against frequently injured (Hewitt, Roddick), regular top10 (Baghdatis, González) or inexperienced (young Djokovic and Murray and Rafael "Clay" Nadal) players.
As for Andy's campaign, it was another great one and I'm damn sure the Brit will not retire without having one Happy Slam title at least. In my opinion, the main "problem" of his game is that it's too similar with Novak's. Of course it's not a real problem because, well, he's the world #2 and you just can't be sad for playing like Djokovic. Thing is, Nole is slightly better and that's why today's match had that upshot: most points were decided by errors (both forced or unforced) and Novak won again. I'm not sure about how accurate is this argument as long as Andy has already defeated Nole in Grand Slam finals and I really want their rivalry to be more thrilling.
Since last year's Indian Wells tournament that I am predicting Milos Raonic to win a Major title soon, and once again I chose him as my darkhorse for Australian Open. The Canadian didn't disappoint me and was indeed very close of doing better than I expected by forcing Murray to play a five-set match to defeat him (and his body). I'm not sure if this will already be Milos' year, but he has serious chances to do no less than the same result in both Wimbledon and US Open.
About ladies' tournament, it was a really historical achievement for Angelique kerber as long as she became the first German to conquer a Major title since the first digit of the year changed to "2"! I still remember watching an young(er) Angie reaching US Open 2011 final and becoming a regular top10 player since, and I was quite mad with myself for skipping women's final last Saturday thinking Serena would easily win once more. After facing a match-point in the first round, Kerber did an outstanding tournament and her victory in the final versus probably the best player ever makes me very happy for the new world number two.
Also, Serena hugging Angie was beautiful. This is why I love tennis, you can never have an excuse to be a dick (or a bitch) in order to get good results. She's still the best tennis player at the moment and is always the main favorite to win any title and she just doesn't give a fuck about what people may or may not think about her. And that's just what sports are about.
Pedro Mendes
