NOVAK DJOKOVIC left no room to question his dominance last night. The 28-year-old Serbian defeated No. 2 Andy Murray in straight sets, 6-1, 7-5, 7-6, en route to his third-straight Grand Slam title and 11th overall.

    This is his sixth Australian Open title, a record among the men’s singles field. Four of those six have come against Murray.

    Djokovic has now won 21-straight matches in Grand Slams, dating back to the start of Wimbledon last year. He only lost one Grand Slam match in 2015, when Stan Wawrinka beat him in the French Open final. The only thing missing from Djokovic’s trophy case is that elusive French Open crown.

    Murray was playing in his fifth Australian Open title. The two-time Grand Slam champion and Olympic gold medalist told the media Friday that he knew he had a huge task ahead of him, but anything could happen in any given match. Djokovic was 21-9 in their career head-to-head and had won 10 of his last 11 matches against the Scot, but Murray had twice beaten him in a major final.

    Those past matches really didn’t matter, Murray said. But yesterday, he failed to figure out a way to put the ghosts of those past matches behind him. When he came to the podium afterwards, he managed to crack a joke about it. “I feel like I’ve been here before,” he said.

    There was little he could have done. Djokovic was on his game from the first point. He won the first five games of the match. The second and third sets were competitive, but simply not enough to overcome the best player in the world.

    The win moves Djokovic into a tie with Roy Emerson for most titles at the Australian Open and into fifth place on the list of all-time Grand Slam titles. He shares fifth place with Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver. Only Roy Emerson, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have more.

    Asked at his press conference what had happened in the first set, Murray noted that he started slow in every match this week. There’s been a lot going on, he said. His wife is more than eight months pregnant. He said throughout that he would leave if she went into labor. His father-in-law, Nigel Sears, was here, as he coaches women’s singles player Ana Ivanovic.

    Sears collapsed during Ivanovic’s fourth round match and had to be taken to a hospital. Murray was also on court at the time and went to see Sears straight after winning. Sears turned out to be okay.

    (SD-Agencies)