Novak Djokovic poses for a photo with his eighth Australian Open crown on Sunday. (Getty Images)
Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic highlighted that the breakpoint in the fourth set was a turning point in the match against Dominic Thiem in the final of the recently concluded Grand Slam tournament.
The defending champion could not hold on to his good start early in the match as he lost both second and third set raising a few eyebrows.
However, the experienced Djokovic quickly bounced back to walk away with his record-eighth title in Australia.
The 32-year old Djokovic was sharing his insights about the match during a post-match press conference after his win over Thiem.
“As I said, facing a breakpoint early in the fourth was a critical moment where things turned around really, I felt,” Djokovic started.
“You know I started to accelerate on my serve, I started to move better and he started to make few more mistakes and then in the second and third set I felt the opportunity and I seized it.
“After that in the fifth set it was anybody’s game really and I knew that very early in the fifth set it was crucial for me to make a break because I had that mental edge again and that was enough to win it,” the Serbian explained.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic admitted that he did not feel good at the end of the third set when he was two sets down to Thiem and had no idea of what was to come later.
He added that this left him a bit shocked and disappointed as everything seemed to be pretty well before the commencement of the game.
However, he managed to let go and fought his way back in the game.
“I was a bit shocked that I did feel that way because everything was fine before the match. First two sets, everything was okay but you know it’s something that you have to accept that you’re going through.”
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“And those kinds of circumstances really kind of forced me to let things go and to really try to be in the moment and fight my way back,” he recollected.
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