Open champion Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, who at 19 became the youngest men’s Grand Slam champion since Nadal’s first title at the 2005 French Open. This is the first Australian Open since Roger Federer‘s retirement. He beat Jack Draper in the first round this year, but was swept by McDonald amid a hip injury in the second round. Open fourth-round defeat, Nadal went 1-6 in his seven matches leading into the Australian Open. He also overcame foot problems to win the French Open, then reach the Wimbledon semifinals before withdrawing with an abdominal muscle tear. Last year, Nadal won the Australian Open on the heels of a chronic foot injury that had him questioning coming back to tennis at all. Nadal also owns the men’s record 22 Grand Slam singles titles overall, just one ahead of Djokovic. The other man to do it is of course Nadal, who owns 14 French Open crowns. He is bidding to move one shy of the overall record 11 Australian Open singles titles held by Margaret Court and become the second man to win any major 10 times. 2 seed, Norwegian Casper Ruud, was knocked out by American Jenson Brooksby.ĭjokovic won three consecutive Australian Opens after a fourth-round defeat in 2018. Every other man in the Open Era (since 1968) to make it to both of those rounds that many times has won a Slam except Todd Martin.ĭjokovic’s stock in Melbourne rose after Nadal, the defending champion and top seed, was injured and ousted in the second round by American Mackenzie McDonald. Tsitsipas made his fifth Grand Slam semifinal and second final, still seeking his first major title. 3 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in Sunday’s final, also with the No.

Open because of his refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19. At the Australian Open, Novak Djokovic can win a men’s record-extending 10th Australian Open title and tie Rafael Nadal for the most men’s major singles titles in history.ĭjokovic was PointsBet Sportsbook’s pre-tournament favorite despite being seeded fourth after missing last year’s Australian Open and U.S.

Australia tennis scores