“Player to beat,” Craig Tiley welcomes back Novak Djokovic who returns to Australia after deportation saga

As the best player of the Australian Open is back, Tennis Australia wholeheartedly welcomes the champion. The return of the biggest champion in the tournament’s history is expected to be received well by the audience as well. Last year’s deportation saga was disastrous in which the Australian government banned the visa of Novak Djokovic citing “public interests” as the reason.

As quoted by Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley, “We welcome him back to Australia. I think as we speak he’s landing in Adelaide and I think that he is going to be again the player to beat. I have a great deal of confidence in the Australian public. I have a lot of confidence that the fans will react how we hope they will react.“

Novak Djokovic had earlier responded to his visa ban overturn in total confidence, “Over the years I’ve been really fortunate to start very strong in Australia and I love playing there,After obviously what happened earlier this year, hopefully I can have a decent reception there and hopefully that can help me play some good tennis.“(Source: Eurosport UK)

Related: Novak Djokovic back Down Under to reclaim his crown after deportation drama

Novak Djokovic is in top form and will be the player to beat

Serbian World No.5 Novak Djokovic has won almost everything where he got a chance this year. After missing most of the tournaments, including 2 majors, he is still inside the top 5 despite getting no points on winning Wimbledon. This in short proves how effective he has been in the tournaments he got a chance to play this year.

Including the triumph in Wimbledon, Djokovic jointly owns the record for the most ATP titles won with Carlos Alcaraz in 2022(5). With the ATP finals title, Djokovic became the first player since Roger Federer in 2010 to win at least one title each of each level in the same calendar season. The Serbian won 5 titles this season: 1 ATP250,1 ATP500,1 ATP1000, 1 ATP Finals, and 1 Grand Slam.

Djokovic also increases the ‘Big Titles’ count to 65 this year- the highest ever in history. The closest competitor is Rafael Nadal with 59. (For the uninitiated, ‘Big titles’ include the titles won in Grand Slam championships, ATP Finals, ATP Masters 1000 tournament, and an Olympic singles gold medal)

By ending the year as number 5 in the rankings, Novak Djokovic has finished the year inside Top-5 for the 15th time (1 behind All-time record held by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal with 16 Top-5 year finishes). With a bunch of records broken despite not playing a number of tournaments this year, a rejuvenated Djokovic will try to break more in 2023. The green signal to play Australian Open will be a huge boost for him as well.

Also Read: Ivan Lendl credits Carlos Alcaraz’s success to Juan Carlos Ferrero’s coaching techniques

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