Djokovic wins first Grand Slam
 Novak
Djokovic capped a great weekend for Serbia as he captured
his first Grand Slam title in Melbourne while Maria Sharapova
also won her first Australian Open title.
With two titles and two players in the singles finals at
the same major for the first time, it was a magnificent tournament
for Serbia, sealed by 20-year-old Djokovic’s triumph
against the tournament’s surprise packet Jo-Wilfried
Tsonga of France in the men’s singles final. Djokovic
became the fourth-youngest Australian Open champion in the
Open Era, and the youngest since the tournament moved to Melbourne
Park in 1988, when he recovered from dropping his first set
of the tournament and overcame a troublesome hamstring to
record a 46 64 63 76(2) victory. The Serbian had previously
put paid to Roger Federer’s hopes of a 13th Grand Slam
title with a straight-sets win in their semifinal.
“Today was very, very close match, so could go either
way, that's for sure. Was just couple of shots, couple of
points deciding. In these crucial moments I was being probably
more patient and more focused, so I think that's one of the
turning points,” said Djokovic.
It was a coming of age for Tsonga, however, who defeated
three Top 10 players, including No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal, en
route to his first Grand Slam final.
Sharapova collected her third Grand Slam title with a 75
63 victory over Djokovic’s countrywoman Ana Ivanovic.
The Russian became the first woman since Lindsay Davenport
in 2000 to win the Australian women’s title without
dropping a set. Sharapova also ended world No. 1 Justine Henin’s
32-match winning streak with a clinical display in the quarterfinal.
In the final, Ivanovic was within two points of winning the
first set before Sharapova struck back to take the opener
7-5 and then the Russian reeled off four straight games from
2-3 in the second set to clinch victory. “I don’t
think today was my best serving performance but I did the
things I needed to do in order to win the match. This was
probably the toughest draw that I’ve ever had in a Grand
Slam, but I’m the champion here. It’s amazing,”
said Sharapova.
History was made in the men’s doubles when Jonathan
Erlich and Andy Ram became the first Israeli pairing to win
a Grand Slam doubles title as they defeated French duo Arnaud
Clement and Michael Llodra 75 76. Kateryna and Alona Bondarenko
rallied from a poor start to defeat Victoria Azarenka and
Shahar Peer 26 61 64 and become the second sisters to claim
a Grand Slam doubles crown in the Open Era, also holding off
a determined finish as the Belarusian- Israeli pairing fought
back from 5-1 down in the third set.
There was more success for Serbia as Nenad Zimonjic teamed
up with Tian Tian Sun to win his second Australian Open mixed
doubles crown. The Serbian-Chinese combination were 76 64
winners over India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza.
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