Back At The Top: Novak Djokovic Wins His 10th Career Aussie Open Championship And Ties Rafa Nadal With 22 Grand Slam Titles

MARTIN KEEP. Getty Images.

For a record 10th time, Novak Djokovic is your Aussie Open champion. It was always going to be Djokovic down under.

 Only two things had a shot of preventing Novak from winning this title, Aussie border patrol and his hamstring. No player in the tournament realistically stood a chance of taking this away from him, especially with Carlos Alcaraz and Nick Kyrgios not in the picture. Novak at -110 pre-tournament was as good a bet as ever. Here's what I said about his chances before things got going. This is certainly not me doing a victory lap, it's just what was always going to happen . 

As for the rest of the field, you're looking at the defending champ in Nadal who hasn't looked good at all lately, Medvedev who just lost in straights to Djokovic in a smaller tournament, Tsitsipas who loves to choke, Kyrgios who can beat anyone and lose to anyone on any given day, the young Italian Jannik Sinner, and maybe a surprise American like Fritz or Korda. Djokovic is -110 to win the whole thing. The only thing that realistically stops him is his hamstring. I'm not usually a futures guy and chalk is lame, but Djokovic to win is a pretty good bet to make right now on the Barstool Sportsbook.

The only moment in the match today where Stefanos really had an opportunity came in the 2nd set with this set point. The moment he missed that window it was actually over. 

The end result was this

And then Novak let out a few years' frustration into his towel, balling his eyes out. Guy has has quite the year to get to this point, can't blame him letting it all out. 

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A record tying 22 grand slams in the bag, 10 Aussie titles, and back to number 1 in the world. Guy is the best and still very much the man everyone is chasing. His mental game is truly unmatched. Everyone else cracks around him while he just pushes forward. Hamstring aside, the level he played this tournament was ridiculous. I wonder if we'll find out how severe the injury was, but over the last 3 or 4 matches it really never came up as a problem. That being said, Novak called this the greatest victory of his career given the circumstances he battled in the last 4 to 5 weeks. Sounds a little over the top and I'd definitely put a few of his wins against Federer over this, but sure, when in the moment go nuts. 

Excited for Carlos to get healthy and give him hell this season because he might be the only true competitor who can take him down when the stakes are their highest. We'll see how healthy Rafa can get for the clay season and if he can regain the top at 23 slams. If not, Novak will just keep destroying everyone and racking up the wins.