Australian Open: Djokovic trounces Murray, makes history
Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, won his match against friend and rival, Britain's Andy Murray Sunday night, to take his third consecutive Australian Open title.
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Djokovic also appeared frustrated at times, kicking the ball football-style back over the net after he hit a forehand long during a lengthy point, and muttering to himself while sitting down in his chair during changeovers. But both players were guilty of making unforced errors, often ending long rallies with shots into the net or long.
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Murray's fans came dressed for the occasion, with some wearing "Braveheart"-style wigs, Scottish flags painted on their faces and tartan caps. One group of men wore white T-shirts with black letters that spelled out A-N-D-Y; they serenaded Murray at the start of the first two sets.
There were a number of Serbian shirts, caps and flags in the stadium, as well as fans calling "Ajde!" or "Come on!" in Serbian to support Djokovic. Retired NBA basketball star Vlade Divac was sitting in Djokovic's box.
Djokovic looked agitated after failing to convert the break points in the first set, frequently looking up to his box and yelling at the members of his team and himself.
Although Djokovic went into the match with a 10-7 lead in head-to-heads, Murray had beaten Djokovic five out of eight times in tiebreakers, and that improved to six of nine after four unforced errors by Djokovic to end the first set.
Djokovic pegged back that edge in the second set, when Murray also didn't help his cause by double-faulting to give Djokovic a 3-2 lead, and the Serbian player didn't trail again in the tiebreaker. He leveled the match after nearly 2 hours, 15 minutes.
Andre Agassi was among those in the capacity crowd at Rod Laver Arena — the four-time Australian champion's first trip Down Under in nearly 10 years — and he later presented the trophy to Djokovic.
Victoria Azarenka, who won Saturday's women's singles final over Li Na, was in the crowd with her boyfriend rapper Redfoo. Actor Kevin Spacey, who met in the dressing room with both players ahead of the match and later tweeted a photo of himself with them, also was in attendance for the third straight night.
In the earlier mixed doubles final Sunday, wild-card entrants Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden of Australia beat the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak 6-3, 7-5.
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