Men's Tennis: Why Novak Djokovic Will Win the 2012 Australian Open

In a classic top-two clash, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will play for the championship in the 2012 Australian Open.

The Spaniard has been talking about injuries since the tournament started, but as usual, found his way through to the final after taking out his customer, Roger Federer, in the semifinal. By the way, how good must it feel to be the only person in the world allowed to call the Swiss his customer?

Nadal is the toughest competitor in the world. He refuses to lose and will do anything to overcome any opponent. In order to beat Nadal, one has to win every single point of the match, as Nadal simply won’t give anything away. It gets as tough as it can possibly get against him.

Nadal will also have the advantage of going to the final match fresher than Djokovic. Nadal had one more day to rest than his opponent had, since his semifinal was played on Thursday, while Djokovic played a marathon match—almost five hours long—against Andy Murray on Friday. This could make a huge difference if the match goes down to the wire.

On the other side of the court, there will be the best tennis player in the world right now. Djokovic is playing a kind of tennis that seems to be from another planet. He looks invincible and shows no signs of any physical, technical or mental weaknesses. He achieved that level of confidence that only true champions do.

In favor of the Serbian, there is also their recent head-to-head series, where he won all six meetings in 2011, which were played on clay, outdoor cement and grass. He is definitely in Nadal’s head.

One can hardly challenge anything on Nadal’s résumé and the decisions he has made in his career, based on what he has accomplished so far. It would be interesting to see, however, whether he could be even better with the help of a real tennis coach, instead of keeping his uncle in the job.

We know he has Francisco Roig in the team, who is a true coach and former great player; however, it is never clear how much contribution he brings to the table. In this author’s opinion, he should take more credit for Nadal’s success than anybody else.

Again, this is a subject never brought up due to all the success the Spaniard has had. Even the TV tennis experts don’t go in this direction, which is unfortunate. It should definitely be done.

Both players hitting the court this Sunday have extremely professional conduct, deserve to be there and to be the top two players in the world.

Djokovic, however, has made a better decision working with a true coach and surrounding himself with a team of qualified people. This team made him the player he is today and made him become better than Nadal.

The Serbian is the player who invested the most in his career. He decided to do what it takes in order to become the best. As a result, he did become the best and will win the Australian Open for the second consecutive year.