Novak Djokovic set up an Australian Open of titanic proportions with old foe Rafael Nadal as he thumped Lucas Pouille on Friday evening. The Serb has never lost a match from the semi-finals and beyond at the Australian Open and he was locked in from start to finish in a one-sided first meeting with the Frenchman. Pouille, by contrast, had never reached the semi-finals of a major and looked helpless as the six-time champion thrashed him 6-0 6-2 6-2 in an hour and 23 minutes. Djokovic has enjoyed a relatively comfortable run to the final, despite not hitting the heights of the last six months of 2018, but he will need to be at his sharpest to tame a raging Spanish bull in Sunday’s final.
It will be the 53rd time the Serbian matador enters the bullring against the 17-time Grand Slam champion, in what is the most voluminous rivalry ever seen in men’s tennis, but only their second meeting at Melbourne Park. Their first encounter was an all-time classic as the greatest physical specimens in the sport’s history locked horns for a remarkable six hours – the longest Grand Slam final in history. This will be their 49th combined Grand Slam final and the pair are chasing remarkable records. Should Djokovic triumph for a seventh time he will move ahead of Roger Federer and Roy Emerson as the most successful man ever to compete the Australian Open while he can become just the first man to record three streaks of three or more consecutive Grand Slam titles. He would also move beyond Pete Sampras’ 15-Slam haul to become the outright third-most successful male tennis player, closing the gap with Nadal to just two titles.
Nadal, meanwhile, can become the first man in the Open Era to win every Grand Slam event twice or more, while he would move within striking distance of Federer’s record 20-Slam collection. Should Nadal reproduce the form that saw Stefanos Tsitsipas win just six games in the first semi-final and Djokovic recapture the level shown on Friday, it will be one heck of a final to kickstart 2019. The conditions were far cooler than the soaring Melbourne heat a day earlier and there was a chilly breeze circling inside the Rod Laver Arena. Pouille started fast with a scorching forehand winner in just the second point of the match – a strike that earned a nod of approval from the top seed – but a double fault just a game later handed the Serb an early advantage
It was the biggest match of the Frenchman’s life and it showed. A forehand flew long and the Serb broke again. Djokovic has been there and done it all before, of course, and his flawless record from this stage onwards in Australia proves he tends to sharpen up in the deeper stages of this major. Having had a bagel rammed down his throat, Pouille finally got on the board in the eighth game of the match. Experimenting with the drop-shot and generally using more variety, he appeared to settle into the match. That proved not to be the case. Djokovic continued to batter him on the court, taking a two-set lead after just 56 minutes. A huge roar erupted from the Serb after he broke in the third, and ultimately, final set and he was soon shaking hands having secured his spot in a seventh Australian Open final.
