2020 Australian Open: Analysing Djokovic's route to the final
Defending champion Novak Djokovic's 7 titles at the Australian Open makes him the most titled player in the history of the tournament. Djokovic and Roger Federer (6) have captured more than a quarter of the Australian Open titles on offer in the Open Era.
Djokovic's tally of 68 match wins at the first Grand Slam tournament on the tennis calendar is only behind that of Federer's 97. The Serb is the only player to win three consecutive Australian Open titles in the Open Era. Among 10 players to have successfully defended their Australian Open title, Djokovic, along with Federer, are the only players to have done so on multiple occasions.
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The Serb's 8 losses at the Australian Open are the fewest he has suffered at any of the four slams. Since a pair of first-round exits in 2005-06, Djokovic has reached the second week of the tournament on all but one occasion (2017 2R: lost to Denis Istomin). The 16-time grand slam champion opens his 16th campaign at Melbourne Park against Jan-Lennard Struff against whom he has won both meetings (2017 Doha and 2019 Roland Garros).
In the second round, Tatsuma Ito or a qualifier would await Djokovic. 30th seed Daniel Evans or compatriot Laslo Djere, neither of whom have met Djokovic before, could lock horns with the Serb for a place in the fourth round. 14th seeded Argentine Diego Schwartzman who is 0-3 against Djokovic, or another Serbian Dusan Lajovic (0-2 against Djokovic) are potential Round of 16 opponents for the 7-time champion.
If Djokovic reaches his 11th quarterfinal at Melbourne Park, 6th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas or 2014 US Open winner Marin Cilic could lie in wait. The Serb has split his 4 meetings with Tsitsipas while he has an overwhelming 17-2 head-to-head record against Cilic. Djokovic's last of three quarterfinal exits at the Australian Open came against eventual winner Stanislas Wawrinka in 2014.
In the event Roger Federer, the highest seed in Djokovic's half of the draw, also reaches the semifinals, it would mark the 50th career meeting between the duo and the pair's 5th meeting in the tournament. Following a defeat in the pair's first Melbourne clash in the 2007 fourth round, Djokovic has dropped only one set in three consecutive semifinal wins over Federer (2008, 2011, 2016).
Djokovic, who has a perfect record in 7 Australian Open semifinals, has a 26-23 head-to-head lead over Federer - a tally which includes a 10-6 lead in grand slam meetings. The 32-year-old is on a 5-match grand slam winning streak against the 20-time grand slam champion since losing in the 2012 Wimbledon semi-finals. The pair's most recent grand slam meeting happened in the 2019 Wimbledon final where the Serb became the first winner at the grass court major in 71 years to have saved multiple championship points in the title match.
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If the Serb were to continue his perfect semifinal record at the tournament, top-seed and world no. 1 Rafael Nadal could stand in the way of Djokovic's ambitions of winning a record-extending 8th Australian Open title. Djokovic trails Nadal 6-9 in all grand slam meetings but is 4-4 against the Spaniard in grand slam finals. The Serb is also on a 6-match 19-set winning streak against Nadal on hardcourts - a streak which includes Nadal's only straight set defeat in a Grand Slam final (2019 Australian Open).
The Big-3 (Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic) have swept the last 12 Grand Slam titles on offer and Djokovic perhaps has the best chance to continue the legendary trifecta's domination of the Grand Slam scene.
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