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Australian Open 2020 Results: Women's Final Score and Men's Final Predictions

Christopher Simpson

Sofia Kenin came from a set down to win her maiden Grand Slam title on Saturday as she beat Garbine Muguruza in the 2020 Australian Open final.

The American won 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in two hours and three minutes against the Spaniard, who was contesting her first Grand Slam final since 2017 and bidding for her third major title.

Kenin recovered from a rocky start in Melbourne:

After losing the opener, she broke Muguruza twice to take the second set in just 32 minutes to force a decider.

The 21-year-old had to show plenty of resilience in the third set, when she found herself 0-40 down at 2-2.

However, she rattled off five points in succession—comprised of four winners and an ace—to hold. Muguruza had the opposite in the following game when, from 40-15 up, she made three errors and a double-fault to give up a break.

From there, the match was only heading in one direction:

Kenin had only ever made it beyond the third round at a Grand Slam once prior to this tournament. She's now a champion and set to move to seventh in the world rankings on Monday thanks to her win, per WTA Insider.

With Kenin's title secured, all eyes will now be on Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem in the men's final on Sunday.

The former is bidding for his eighth title in Melbourne, while the latter could win his first Grand Slam in what is his third major final.

Djokovic came through his semi-final with Roger Federer unscathed on Thursday:

As for Thiem, he had to come from behind to beat Alexander Zverev on Friday, so he has had a day less to recover for Sunday's showpiece and played a longer match.

The Austrian has a lot more miles on the clock in this tournament, too, having had three matches go to four sets and one to five, and he's had to play seven tiebreakers. By contrast, Djokovic has dropped just two sets in the entire tournament and only been taken to a tiebreaker on three occasions.

Christopher Clarey of the New York Times believes much will depend on Thiem's fitness on Sunday, but the pair could put on quite the spectacle:

Djokovic leads Thiem 6-4 in their head-to-head record, but all of Thiem's victories have come in their last five meetings, dating back to the French Open quarter-final in 2017. Since 2016, no other player has beaten Djokovic more than three times.

If anyone has a chance of beating Djokovic on Sunday, it's Thiem. But despite their recent record, it's hard to rule out the Serb.

Simply put, Djokovic doesn't lose finals in Melbourne:

Given how much fresher the 32-year-old should be than his opponent on top of that, expect him to pick up his 17th Grand Slam title on Sunday after a hard-fought contest.

Prediction: Djokovic wins in four sets

   

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