Novak Djokovic continues his dominance on hard courts beating the fourth seed, Russian Daniil Medvedev, 7-5,6-2,6-2 in one hour, fifty-three minutes in Sunday’s (February 21) final of the Australian Open.

Djokovic has now won 18 Grand Slam titles, nine of those at the Australian Open.

It was an impressive win in Melbourne, with Djokovic able to switch tactics during the match forcing Medvedev to play extra shots and so testing his ability to stay within rallies.

At the later stage of the match, Medvedev looked like a junior club player, smashing his racket, remonstrating with his self after every point he lost and looking to his box for an answer to what was a comprehensive beat down.

Make no mistake, Djokovic showed why he is one of the best men’s champions in the history of the game, knowing when to turn the vice, up the ante and frustrate his opponent.

It was all the more remarkable, given that he was plagued by stomach injuries during earlier rounds.

Commenting on exhibiting true grit, Djokovic said: “I had to lock myself in and focus all my energy into recovery and mental preparation. I think I did that really well and I surprised myself too about how I managed to stay tough when it was hard to. I will take a lot of positives from this tournament, but I will also take a break.”

Alas, the next generation of men tennis superstars will have to continue waiting to make the breakthrough at the Grand Slams. For now, it still remains a three-horse race between Federer, Nadal and Djokovic and they don’t look likely to give up their grip on dominance anytime soon.

Federer has 20 Grand Slam championships, tying with Nadal, followed by Djokovic on 18. Djokovic can catch both Federer and Nadal within the year with his best chances coming at Wimbledon and the US Open.

There is no doubt a gulf between the top three and the rest who are unable to wrestle those trophies away from guys that are now in their thirties.

“There has been a lot of talk about the new generation coming and taking over from the three of us but realistically that isn’t happening still,” said Djokovic.

“With my respect to all the other guys, they still have a bit of work to do. I’m not going to stand here and hand it over to them. I am going to make them work their arse off for it,” the Serb added. Now that sounds ominous. Djokovic has a point and the numbers tell the story.

Looking across the generations of great players of the game, the stand-out champions all won their first Grand Slam before they were 21 and then went on to win multiple events.

They say in tennis, once you hit 30, it’s all downhill. The top guys today show no sign of that and Federer, who will be 40 this year, is still doing it and doing it well.

Here are the facts: Federer won his first Grand Slam at 21, Pete Sampras at 19, Nadal at 19,  John McEnroe at 20, Boris Becker at 17, Djokovic at 20, Bjorn Borg at 18 and Stefan Edberg at 19. These guys did this in eras of great competition taking out greats of their times.

The next-gen today are made up of Dominic Theim, who is 27; Daniil Medvedev, now 25;  the German Alexander Zverev, 25; and the Greek Stefanos Tsitispas, who is just 22.

Guys, Djokovic is right – you all have a lot of work to do and time is running out. You may find yourselves usurped by the next generation after the next generation!