Djokovic Tames Murray in Straight Sets For 6th Australian Open Crown

The 28-year-old Djokovic has a staggering 57-6 record in Melbourne, winning his first major title there in 2008 (d. Tsonga) before returning as champion in 2011 (d. Murray), 2012 (d. Nadal), 2013 (d. Murray) and 2015 (d. Murray).

 

The Serb captured his 11th Grand Slam championship, moving into equal fifth place with Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver on the all-time list for most major titles. Djokovic won three of the four Grand Slam crowns in 2015, only denied the calendar slam by Stan Wawrinka in the Roland Garros final.

 

Djokovic improved to a 22-9 FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Murray as he wrapped up victory in two hours and 53 minutes. The Belgrade native won six of their seven meetings last season. Since Murray defeated the Serb in the 2012 US Open final, Djokovic has won 14 of their past 16 contests.

 

Djokovic made a lightening start to the match. After saving a break point in his opening game, the Serb raced into a 5-0 lead in just 19 minutes. Murray began to find his range in the latter stages, but could not stop Djokovic sealing the opener in 30 minutes.

 

In a keenly contested second set, Murray saved four break points in the third game, before he paid the price for forehand unforced errors as Djokovic broke for a 4-3 lead. Murray immediately struck back, breaking for the first time in the match to level at 4-4, but lost his serve from a 40/0 advantage in the 11th game as Djokovic regained the initiative. Two double faults from Djokovic gave Murray the chance to level in the 12th game, but the Serb steadied himself to close out the two-set lead.

 

Building on his momentum, Djokovic broke Murray in the first game of the third set, but the Dunblane native was not going down without a fight. He broke Djokovic in the sixth game to draw level and ultimately force a tie-break. But two double faults from Scot proved his undoing in the early stages of the tie-break, gifting Djokovic a lead that he would never recover.