When the pair met in the 2021 French Open final Tsitsipas won the first two sets against Djokovic before his opponent staged a dramatic fightback to win in five sets. The new world No.1 was in dominant form in Sunday’s final winning his 10th Australian Open title in straight sets 6-3, 7-6(4), 7-6(5) with the match lasting two hours and 56 minutes.
During the final Eurosport commentator Chris Bradnam urged Tsitsipas to get some advice from recently retired 20-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer about how to improve his groundstrokes. Bradnam said: “He’s made over 23 million dollars in prize money, Tsitsipas.
“He’s employing the services of Mark Philippoussis (part of his coaching set-up). I don’t know how much it would cost, or if there’d be any interest, but how about a chat with Roger Federer, to ask ‘how would you work on my forehand, Mr Federer?’ Let alone the backhand, and what he’d advise.”
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After his semi-final victory over Karen Khachanov seven-time Grand Slam winner John McEnroe had other ideas praising the forehand, composure and maturity of Tsitsipas on his way to the final.
“I thought the forehand was unbelievable, some of the biggest shots I’ve seen, and I’ve watched tennis for a long time,” said McEnroe. “There was one game – at the end of the second set – I’ve never seen a guy hit six or seven winners off the return consistently that hugely and that accurately, but then he choked. He got tight when he should have won it in three easy sets. I hand it to him that he re-grouped. He showed a lot of composure and maturity, getting the job done.”
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After losing to Djokovic in Sunday’s final Tsitsipas called his opponent the “greatest of all time”. He added: “”Novak is a player that pushes you to your limits. I don’t see this as a curse. I don’t see this as something, like, annoying. This is very good for the sport, to have competitors like him, to have champions like him.
“He’s very important for us that want to get to his point one day. Getting our a**es kicked is for sure a very good lesson every single time. He has made me a much better player. He has made my levels of concentration higher and higher every single time I get to play him. You have to be really involved and you have to be dedicated to the game when you play against him.”
