● Thiem shines but Serb holds his nerve for eighth Melbourne crown

Novak Djokovic continued the old guard’s grand slam dominance by winning an eighth Australian Open title despite a monumental effort by Dominic Thiem.

For much of the contest it appearedthiem,whodefeated Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals, would be the first of the younger generation to claim a slam title.

The 26-year-old Austrian led by two sets to one against an out-of-sorts Djokovic only for the Serbian to fight back and claim a 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.

Djokovic, who remains unbeaten in finals on Rod Laver Arena, now has 17 slam titles, only three short of record holder Roger Federer, and will reclaim the world No 1 ranking from Nadal today.

The trio have won the last 13 slams between them but, after Daniil Medvedev pushed Nadal to five sets in the US Open final, there is no doubt they are having to fight harder to keep the door shut.

The surprise was not so much that Thiem came close – he has been the consistent improver of men’s tennis over the last few years, while he had won four of his previous five matches against Djokovic – but that the defending champion played such a patchy match.

The 32-year-old lost his cool in the ninth game of the second set after being given back-to-back time violations, the second of which resulted in him being penalised a first serve and then broken.

On the way back to his seat he tapped umpire Damien Dumusois on the foot, saying: “You’ve made yourself famous, well done.”

It was the start of a six-game winning run for Thiem, twice