MOSCOW, January 25. /TASS/. /TASS/. World’s No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia is in hot pursuit of the record-breaking 7th champion’s title of the Australian Open after swooping into the final of this year’s opening Grand Slam tournament with a straight sets win over Lucas Pouille of France.
Friday’s semifinal match at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne lasted for only 1 hour 23 minutes and saw Djokovic hammering the 28-seed French player 6-0; 6-2; 6-2.
"It’s definitely one of the best matches I ever had on this court," the tournament’s official website quoted Djokovic as saying after the match. "Everything worked the way I imagined, and even more so."
The 24-year-old French athlete has been playing at the Australian Open tournaments since 2014, but until this year Pouille never managed to clear the first stage.
— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) 19 January 2019
"Tough one for Lucas, but he had a great tournament," the 31-year-old Serbian tennis star said. "He definitely has the quality to be a top-10 player. It was his first semifinal, and the occasion is different, there’s more weight in the match. He’s going to get more of these types of matches in the late stages of Grand Slams."
"I’ve said before that I always had belief in myself, and self-belief always prevails," he said. "There was always part of me, and still is, that believed that I can play this way. That’s the key - always relying on your qualities and trusting the process will turn out the way you want it to."
Djokovic’s ambitious plans to grab the 7th Australian Open crown and the third consecutive Grand Slam champion’s title can be easily frustrated by his final’s opponent, Rafael Nadal of Spain.
The Spanish tennis star has not lost a single set at this year’s tournament on his way to the final. On Thursday, he also stunned his semifinals opponent, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, 6-2; 6-4; 6-0 in the match, which lasted for 1 hour 48 minutes.
Nadal won his sole Australian Open title ten years ago. The Spanish player holds the champion’s titles of 17 Grand Slam tournaments in men’s singles, which ranks him as the second best in the history of tennis.
entrenamiento, practice! pic.twitter.com/z0nQNQvWnv
— Rafa Nadal (@RafaelNadal) 10 December 2018
Djokovic is the winner of 72 ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) tournaments and the champion of 14 Grand Slam events. He is also the bronze medal winner of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in men’s singles and, playing for his national team, the 2010 Davis Cup champion.
R3️⃣ #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/bHKmtcAGKU
— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) 18 January 2019
Before going into the final of this year’s Australian Open this weekend, this duo faced each other 52 times with 27 of them won by Djokovic and 25 by Nadal.
One of their previous encounters was the final of the 2012 Australian Open final, which lasted for record 5 hours and 53 minutes and saw the eventual win of Djokovic over Nadal 5-7; 6-4; 6-2; 6-7 (5-7); 7-5.
"We have slightly different rules this year with the super tiebreak, so I don’t think it will go as far as six hours," Djokovic said on Friday commenting on his final with Nadal seven years ago and the clash on Sunday. "That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and hopefully the outcome can be the same for me."
Summing up expectations of tennis fans about the upcoming final with Nadal, Djokovic said "First of all, I would definitely want to buy a ticket for the match."