Djokovic overpowers Murray to take Australian Open title

Novak Djokovic easily beat Andy Murray 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 to take the Australian Open title, the Serb's sixth title in Melbourne. This was Scot Murray's fifth final here, having lost in all of his previous appearances, and today he was unable to break the run, having no answer to Djokovic's overpowering tennis. 

Murray managed a break-point in the first game of the match, but that was soon consigned to no more than a line of code in a statistics database as his opponent raced to take the first set 6-1, hitting the lines and outplaying Murray, who seemed unsure what his game plan was. 

The second set was a much tighter affair, as Djokovic dropped his level somewhat (meaning he made the occasional mistake) and Murray remembered he was in a Grand Slam final and began playing with more aggression. Djokovic had to serve to stay in the set at 5-4, and Murray was then 40-0 up at 5-5, before his rival wrested that game from him and served out for the set. 

Djokovic broke right at the start of the third, to leave many in the Rod Laver arena feeling their match ticket had been overpriced for the spectacle on display, but Murray managed to break back to take it to 3-3, giving the fans something to cheer about. 

Full screen

The Scot managed to get to the tie-break, but opened with a double fault, while Djokovic's first serve grazed the centre line and gave him an ace. From there Murray had nothing more to give and Djokovic took the tie-break and with it the Australian Open title.