Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem are meeting in the Australian Open finals, which takes place this Sunday morning. The Serb and the Austrian are in totally different roles here. While Novak aims his record eighth title here, Thiem is on a quest for the first Grand Slam trophy in his career. The two guys showed the best possible tennis here in Melbourne and completely deserved to find themselves in the position to fight for the title.
Preview
Thiem is playing the best tennis of his life. After defeating Rafael Nadal in a four-set thriller, he turned the spotlights on him, finally getting the attention he deserves. Although being marked as a player who is better when appearing on clay, Thiem proved himself on other surfaces as well. Him winning the ATP Masters 1000 in Indian Wells was something which pretty much surprised the world, and that wasn’t a one-time wonder. Later, the No.5 in the world won the tournament in Beijing and reached the finals of the Nitto ATP Masters Finals in London. Here in Melbourne, Thiem had a pretty rough path up to this point. He faced Taylor Fritz already in the third round, and after that clashed with the French veteran Gael Monfils. Facing Nadal was the biggest of his challenges, but with a certain dose of luck, he managed to eliminate the defending champion. His return is the biggest weapon at the moment, and we saw that against Alexander Zverev, who had a very high percentage of the first service but couldn’t materialize that.
Novak is as always superb in Australia. He is the champion of this tournament, the biggest ever, and the one who didn’t lose a single finals. Apart from dropping one set in the opening round against Jan-Lennard Struff, Djokovic swept all other his opponents. However, we might say that he had a much easier job so far than his rival in the final. Biggest names on his way to tomorrow’s match were Milos Raonic and Roger Federer, and with all due respect, we have to add that Roger wasn’t a big issue for the Joker, because of his earlier situation. It was clear that FedEx is not 100% fit for their clash. Novak’s tempo and his return are the two main weapons against all of the rivals.
Head to Head Record
Novak leads 6-4 against Thiem, but in recent times, the Austrian was beating Djokovic most of the time. To be exact, he defeated him on four occasions in the previous five events. And not only that, Thiem was better than Nole, although the Serb had a lead a few times after the first set.
Prediction
We expect at least four sets in this match if not all five. Thiem has the stamina for going to distance with Novak, who, as we already saw many times, can endure hours and hours of high-intensity tennis. Yet, apart from Thiem taking a set in this meeting, we can’t see him doing something more. Novak is astonishing, and his mindset in the finals, especially here, is terrific. No doubt, his previous losses against the No.5 in the world will only make him even more motivated to beat him. So, Novak with a -1.5 handicap is our choice. The odds on this recommendation at BetXChange are at 0.55.
