Melbourne: Novak Djokovic was looking weary and worn down. He trailed Dominic Thiem in the Australian Open final – miscues mounting, deficit growing.
Djokovic did what he does, though. He refused to lose, waited for a chance to pounce and found his best tennis when absolutely necessary.
Regaining his stamina and strokes, Djokovic came back to edge Thiem 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 Sunday night for an eighth Australian Open title, second in a row, and his 17th Grand Slam trophy overall.
Only Roger Federer, with 20, and Rafael Nadal, with 19, have won more men’s Grand Slam singles trophies.
A little more than six months after saving a pair of championship points against Federer en route to winning a five-set Wimbledon final, Djokovic again showed that he can’t ever be counted out.
This victory improved Djokovic’s combined record in semifinals and finals at Melbourne Park to 16-0 and means he will return to No. 1 in the rankings, replacing Nadal in that spot. No other man in the history of tennis has won this hard-court tournament more than six times.
It did not come easily this time for the 32-year-old Djokovic. He lost six games in a row in one stretch to Thiem, who plays a similar type of tennis.
Djokovic was down two sets to one. He was visited by a doctor and trainer in the third set and, desperate to re-hydrate, guzzled bottles of water and energy drink. He lectured the chair umpire over two calls for time violations.
This was not the dominant Djokovic who made a hard-to-believe total of nine unforced errors during his straight-set triumph over Nadal in the final a year ago.
Djokovic eclipsed that total in the first set alone Sunday, with 14, and finished with 57. In the end, though, he improved to 31-10 in five-set matches; Thiem fell to 8-7.
It was a physical test offering plenty of entertaining exchanges, with 61 points lasting at least nine shots apiece.
Suddenly making a charge as his younger, less-experienced opponent faltered, Djokovic broke to lead 5-3 in the fourth set, helped by a sloppy volley into the net tape, a double fault and a bad forehand by Thiem.
In the fifth set, another missed forehand by Thiem let Djokovic break to go up 2-1. Djokovic faced a challenge in the next game, when Thiem held a pair of breakpoints but netted a forehand then sent a backhand passing try long. The spectacle would continue for another half hour, approaching the four-hour threshold, but that was pretty much that.
Soon, Djokovic would own the silver Australian Open trophy he already had won in 2008, 2011-13, 2015-16 and 2019. He added that haul to his five titles from Wimbledon, three from the US Open and one from the French Open.
Thiem, an Austrian who is 26, was appearing in his third major final. He has lost them all, including to Nadal at Roland Garros each of the past two years.
Thiem was trying to become the first man born in the 1990s to win a Grand Slam singles title and was hoping to end the recent run of dominance by the sport’s ‘Big Three’ – Djokovic, Nadal and Federer. Came close, but couldn’t finish the job.