MELBOURNE, Australia — A 25th Grand Slam would have been historic, but this year’s Australian Open showed that Novak Djokovic does not need another major to burnish his already peerless legacy.
Djokovic fell just short of breaking the record he jointly holds with Margaret Court for Grand Slam titles won, but he still leaves Melbourne an even more titanic figure in tennis than when he arrived.
In beating Jannik Sinner in five sets to win Friday night’s semifinal, Djokovic defied the doubters once again.
At 38, he had been written off from beating one of tennis’ Big Two at a Grand Slam, and he had even come close to counting himself out after another humbling loss to Alcaraz at last year’s U.S. Open.
The achievement of beating Sinner, the two-time defending champion and basically unbeatable on hard courts for four months has to be up there with some of his Grand Slam wins, perhaps over and above beating Denis Shapovalov then Matteo Berrettini to win Wimbledon in 2021, or Cameron Norrie then Nick Kyrgios a year later.
In his news conference after losing to Alcaraz in New York last year, Djokovic had hinted that this kind of win would be meaningful to him. He said that no one should underestimate the incredible buzz of winning night matches against some of the sport’s best players, as he had done against Taylor Fritz in front of a partisan home crowd the previous round.
Doing the same thing to Sinner Friday night, at the tournament where the Italian had usurped him as the undisputed champion, was even more satisfying.
All of which led to the moment when Djokovic went to give his runners-up speech and had to pause while the crowd bellowed out his name. Djokovic has made no secret of how much it has meant to him to have this kind of adulation later on in his career. And it was especially poignant here in Australia, where he has often been a divisive figure, especially when his visa was twice revoked in 2022 for breaching the country’s Covid-19 rules.
Once he had taken the mic, Djokovic said he had never experienced so much love and support at the event. He added that as much as he believed in himself, he didn’t think he’d be standing to deliver a speech at a final again.
In the interview room afterward, Djokovic described beating Sinner and pushing Alcaraz as an “incredible achievement”. He rued the way that “things changed” midway through the second set, and he wasn’t able to compete as he had been up until then. Djokovic wouldn’t elaborate on exactly what had happened, but he was clearly furious that his already incredibly difficult task was made even harder.
But the return of that kind of fire was encouraging. When Sinner and Alcaraz between them won nine sets to zero for Djokovic in the last three majors of last year, the all-time great at times looked like a beaten man. He appeared almost resigned to his fate, the fire in him gone.
The fire has been back in Melbourne, with Djokovic calling out a journalist for asking a “disrespectful” question about him chasing the current Big Two and then saying after beating Sinner that he should thank all the doubters for helping to fuel him. He may have always believed he could challenge Sinner and Alcaraz, but now he is convinced he still can and will.
Novak Djokovic reassumed his role as one of tennis’ main characters at the Australian Open. (William West / AFP via Getty Images)
For those who still want to doubt Djokovic’s chances of winning the elusive 25th major, the argument would go that even with a walkover in the fourth round and Lorenzo Musetti retiring hurt when leading two sets to love in the quarterfinals, he still couldn’t quite get over the line. Will the stars ever align to this extent again?
Maybe not, but that is also not the point.
He continues to defy expectations, and even at 39 by the time the next Grand Slam rolls around, he may continue to do so. Suddenly the Los Angeles Olympics at 41 in 2028, which he has earmarked as a goal several times in recent years, doesn’t seem so fanciful.
Alcaraz, the victor, paid tribute to the way that Djokovic was “putting his body and his mind, his life into playing a final of a Grand Slam again” and praised him for providing the doubters wrong. “He comes and plays such great tennis and beats Jannik in the semifinal, and here in the final played such great tennis,” Alcaraz said in a news conference.
“It’s unbelievable what he’s doing.
“If he maintains this level of tennis during the whole season, he’s going to win great things. Probably Masters 1000 again (the rung below the Grand Slams). He’s going to come to a Grand Slam final again. It depends how physically he is or how demanding physically the tournament is for him, but I think he’s ready to keep winning the big tournaments in the tour.”
Whether he does or not, Djokovic has offered the latest reminder of why he should never be doubted — and more proof that his legacy can grow and strengthen even without a 25th Grand Slam title.