Sports

Novak Djokovic & the new Grand Slam champion
by Milota Sidorova

MELBOURNE, Jan. 27. The first Grand Slam winner in the history of Serbia. Only 20 years old Novak Djokovic gains a dramatic victory by beating Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 4-6 6-4 6-3 7-6 in Sunday's final at the 2008 Australian Open. On his way up he tamed Roger Federer in the semifinals and after a match lasting three hours and six minutes he finally knocked out the favorite challenger, 22 years old Tsonga, known as Muhammad Ali of tennis. In the beginning Djokovic felt that even the audience wanted the Frenchman to win. He claimed that he had two rivals, the fans and Tsonga. For his aggressive and mettlesome style player no. 38 in the world chart soon became a Melbourne minion. Due to his victory, France could gain another Grand Slam champion since Yannick Noah won at Roland Garros in 1983. "Coming on against a player with nothing to lose -- he was going for the shots and he was very dangerous, especially in the first set -- I was pretty nervous," claimed Novak, who had lost the first set, but made up his game in the second and third set. "I was trying to stay with him because I knew sooner or later, with my style of game, I could get in control of the match," Behind Federer and Nadal, young Serbian holds No.3 in the rankings, while Tsonga scraped out to No.18. Djokovic is expecting wild celebrations back in Serbia. According to his words this is a small country without a tennis tradition. Despite of that, Serbian expedition reached the semifinals at Melbourne Park this year.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080127/ap_on_sp_te_ga_su/ten_australian_open;_ylt=AuZQTHgQBZN5Obid5p6O5wWs0NUE

by Milota Sidorova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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posted by Blog TechSource @ 3:31 PM