Australian Open 2023: Updated Men's Bracket and Final Predictions
Novak Djokovic has never lost an Australian Open final.
The 35-year-old Serb will put his 9-0 championship match record in Melbourne on the line against Stefanos Tsitsipas on Sunday.
Tsitsipas is appearing in his second Grand Slam final. He lost the first in five sets to Djokovic at the 2021 French Open.
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Djokovic cruised through the first six rounds in Australia to reach the final. He looked unbeatable in certain rounds, as he gave his opponents no chance to get into matches.
Tsitsipas displayed some flaws in his two matchups with ranked foes, as he went to five sets with Jannik Sinner in the fourth round and Karen Khachanov took him to four sets in the semifinals.
The third-seeded Greek's difficulties against ranked players may hurt him as Djokovic attempts to play close-to-mistake-free tennis yet again in Melbourne to claim his 10th Australian Open title.
Updated Bracket
No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. No. 4 Novak Djokovic
Final Information
Date: Sunday, January 28
Start Time: 3:30 a.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: ESPN.com and ESPN app
Prediction
Novak Djokovic def. Stefanos Tsitsipas in Four Sets
It has been difficult for anyone to even take a set off of Djokovic in Melbourne this year.
The fourth-seeded Serb was pushed to an extra set once by Enzo Couacaud in the second round. The Frenchman beat Djokovic in a second-set tiebreak in the four-set match.
Djokovic has been taken to a set tiebreak just two times in 19 sets. The last tiebreak occurrence came against Grigor Dimitrov in the first set of the third round.
The 35-year-old cruised in his last three matches, as Alex De Minaur, Andrey Rublev and Tommy Paul combined to win more than four games in a set twice. Rublev won four games off Djokovic in the third set of their quarterfinal match, while Paul dropped the first semifinal set 5-7.
On the other hand, Tsitsipas struggled a bit against the best players he faced on his way to the final.
The five-set match with Sinner and four-set clash with Khachanov could raise concerns that Tsitsipas is not up to battle Djokovic throughout an extended match.
Tsitsipas did win two sets off Djokovic in the 2021 French Open final, but he was unable to close in that spot. Djokovic reached another level and fought back to win at Roland Garros in five sets.
The Greek should be able to win a set off Djokovic. He has 12 matches of experience against the Serb and will know what tendencies to exploit.
But Djokovic feels like he is in his own rarified air of form in Australia because of how dominant he has been against his highest-ranked opponents.
If Djokovic maintains that form inside Rod Laver Arena on Sunday, it is hard to find a path to victory for Tsitsipas.
The Greek could play the match of his life to defeat Djokovic, but allowing Khachanov and Sinner to hang around in his two previous matches against ranked players seems like a sign that Tsitsipas can't play at the ridiculously high level that a Djokovic opponent has to be at to beat him in a Grand Slam final.
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