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Novak Djokovic swept aside Lucas Pouille in straight sets to book his place in the Australian Open final against Rafael Nadal. The world No.1 demonstrated his class in the 6-0 6-2 6-2 victory over his French opponent on Friday, needing just one hour and 23 minutes to reach a 24th Grand Slam final.
Pouille, appearing in his first major semi-final, had his serve broken seven times in total as Djokovic raced through the opening set in just 23 minutes.
It took the 28th seed until the eighth game of the match to finally get on the board but he continued to struggle on serve, his first serve percentage dropping to an alarming 46 per cent as Djokovic broke twice more to claim the second set.
Any hopes the Rod Laver Arena crowd had of seeing a competitive contest were already out of the window and another break in the fourth game of the third set proved decisive as Djokovic went on to wrap up a convincing win.
Djokovic said: “It’s definitely one of the best matches I ever had on this court. Everything worked the way I’d imagined it and even more so. Tough one for Lucas but he had a great tournament and I wish him all the best for the rest of the season.”
Djokovic will now look to claim a seventh Australian Open title on Sunday when he faces off against Nadal for a 53rd time. The Spaniard has yet to drop a set in Melbourne but was beaten by Djokovic the last time the duo met in Australia, the 31-year-old edging a five-hour and 53-minute marathon in the 2012 final.
