5 things we learned from the Australian Open 2016

The Australian Open 2016, the first Grand Slam of the calendar year, had everything a tennis fan could ask for. Shocking upsets, new rising stars, epic matches and scandals kept the fan on tenterhooks from the start of the tournament till the very end. With three of the show courts flaunting their roofs, tournament director Craig Tiley earned his yearly dose of praises from players and rightly so.The rain made sure that it played its part in the Australian Open drama as it entailed change of conditions and brought forth challenges to qualifiers and champions alike. Towards the latter stages of the tournament, the organizers called upon a pantheon of champions like the great Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall and other legends like Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong, Kim Clijsters who added a smattering of history.Tennis fans got an opportunity to see new champions being crowned and some old ones retaining their stranglehold on the title. But above all the tournament gave us some great learning about the sport, its intricacies and a hint of the direction in which it is heading this season.If you missed out on any of the action, you need not worry! You can easily relive all the matches of the tournament on the Sony LIV website and App. You can find all the highlights, winning shots, key moments, interviews, and much more.

#1 No mind Djokovic embraces the Last Samurai

The Serb started the brand new season in style. He picked up from he had left the previous season. At the end of a phenomenal 2015 the critics, as part of their off season musings, raised questions regarding Novak’s ability to stay put at the helm in the coming season. Their queries were answered when he annihilated Rafael Nadal in the Doha Open Final.

Novak’s quest for a sixth Australian Open title was ridden with obstacles – both physical and mental. Though he was well rested during the off season and had trained at Monte Carlo, he seemed to run out of gas against the French journeyman Gilles Simon. With a jaw dropping unforced error count that exceeded a ton, Novak was way below his best and yet pulled off a five set victory.

The match fixing scandal rocked the tennis world in the very first week of the Slam down under. Rumor mills ran extra shifts and 16 players who are or were among the top 50 in the World were alleged to have been involved in various instances of match fixing. A day later, an Italian tabloid carried news alleging the current World No.1 and the reigning Australian Open Champion Novak Djokovic to have thrown away a match against Fabrice Santoro in 2007.

Let’s face it. It is not easy for a player who is currently at the pinnacle of the Sport to keep his mind off such distractions. Novak probably saw the whole situation in another light. He seemed so unperturbed with all the noise that he marched on round after round taking down opponents at will and proving the point that ‘consistency’ is indeed his middle name. Following the minor hiccup against Simon he blasted Nishikori off the court, made Federer’s artistry seem inadequate and mollycoddled Murray into yet another teary speech.

The key to the Serb’s mindboggling success is the little dialogue – Too many minds, have no mind - from the movie The Last Samurai, in which Tom Cruise was learning to be a swordsman.

With the sixth Australian Open on his mantle, Novak earned his place in history as he tied Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver with 11 Grand Slam titles. Novak lived up to the Djokovic standard.

He has definitely coined his own standard and the process, as we learn, has no shortcuts but only includes hard work, sheer determination, extraordinary will and an unwavering focus.