Perhaps. I once watched a horse race where the favourite, The Rocket, came in with a heavily strapped hind leg. This turned the low odds into reasonably high ones. And as luck would have it, won in a canter.

The way Djokovic demolished Alex, I believe the injury may be feigned to get opponents to make false assumptions about his mobility and all court power hitting game from both sides. While nothing is certain I believe the odds should be even money for Djokovic.
Alan B.

Hi Alan B.

I also think Djokovic's injury was feigned not only by Djokovic but by the Channel Nine Network and Australian Open for commercial advertising reasons.

Viewing numbers would be raised when Australia's last contender, Alex de Minaur (seeded 22nd) had a hope of beating "an injured" Djokovic (seeded 4th).

A fighting fit Djokovic (and he in fact was) would normally clobber de Minaur and thats what happened.

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Djokovic is due to play 5th seed Rublev "the Russian" at 7.30pm (or just after) tonight Wednesday 25 Jan.

That will be much closer, I reckon.

Mavs

Checking my TV programmes I find it dumbfounding that so-called intelligent people can sit there for hours watching. Who in his/her right mind would do that let alone watch it at home on TV ?
By all means go to a game & watch it but for TV programmers to pollute the air waves with such mindless activity is nothing short of insane !

Well... the answer to the question as to whether Serbian Novak Djokovic would win the AO title for 2023 is, Yes, he did so - on 29 Jan.
While he defeated Stephan Tsitsipas in 3 sets, the match was surprisingly close at 6-3, 7-6 and 7-6. Had those 2 last very close sets gone the way of the challenger, Tsitsipas may have pulled off a win. Maybe next year the Greek may have accumulated enough skill and experience to take the title.

Djokovic did not seem worried by his hamstring during the match.

But I have a question: why did Djokovic kiss the trophy? Of course many sports winners also kiss their trophies. But why??