January 29, 2024, was a historic day in the whole of sports. The world witnessed the championship games of the Australian Open Men’s Tournament as well as the final match of the inaugural edition of the ICC Under-19 Women’s World Cup.
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AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2024: Men’s Singles Championship Game
The Australian Open is one of the 4 major tournaments(also known as grand slams) in Tennis. Along with Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the French Open, the AO (or Australian Open) is one of the most prestigious tournaments in the sport of Tennis.
This year’s AO was historic for several reasons. It was Indian superstar, Sania Mirza’s last major tournament, in which she succeeded in being one of the finalists, along with Rohan Bopanna in the Mixed Doubles. She is one of the few women to reach the final of a Grand Slam tournament post-pregnancy.
But the eyes in the tournament were on the ‘King of Hard Court’, Novak Djokovic of Serbia. In an amazing run throughout the tournament, he did make it to the final. The match yesterday against Stefanos Tsitsipas was meant to be a record-breaker. Several records would have broken, no matter who won.
The 9-time Australian Open champion, Novak Djokovic did it again. The 35-year-old sealed a clinical victory 6-4, 7-6(7-4), 7-6(7-5) against the 24-year-old Tsitsipas. This is not only his 10th Australian Open title but also his 22nd Grand Slam title. With this win, he has equaled competitor Rafael Nadal, as the player with the most Grand Slam titles in the men’s single category. Novak was also successful in continuing his streak of not losing a Semi-Final or Final match at the Australian Open ever.
The Serbian calls it ‘the biggest victory of his career considering the circumstances’. He was not allowed to play in the previous edition of the tournament due to Covid protocols in Australia and as he had refused to get vaccinated. Australia had canceled his visa.
ICC Under-19 Women’s World Cup: India emerge triumphant
It was the first-ever edition of the ICC Under-19 women’s world cup. India qualified for the championship game. The event was held in South Africa and was played in the T20 format.
Captained by Shaifali Verma, the ‘women in blue’ beat England in the finals to lift the trophy. The squad was unstoppable throughout the tournament and their only loss came in one of the Super Six games against Australia.
The group stage was comfortable for India. The team sealed victory after victory with their dominant performance. Even after a close loss against Australia, the team did not lose heart and beat Sri Lanka and New Zealand (in Semi-Final) to reach the Finals.
In the championship match, England also did not seem like a huge threat to the mighty Indian squad. They were successful in getting the English team all-out by the 18th over, at the score of just 68 runs. India beat the score in the 14th over with the loss of just 3 wickets.
The player of the match for India was Titas Sadhu who gave away just 6 runs in her four overs and also took 2 wickets.
This is also India’s first championship victory in any ICC women’s tournament.
