Defending champion Novak Djokovic defeated Dominic Thiem in the final, 6–4, 4–6, 2–6, 6–3, 6–4 to win the men's singles tennis title at the 2020 Australian Open. It was his record-extending eighth Australian Open title and 17th major title overall. With the win, Djokovic regained the world No. 1 singles ranking, and became the first player since Ken Rosewall to win major titles in three different decades, and the first to do so in the Open Era. The match also marked the first time Djokovic came back to win a major final after trailing two sets to one, having lost each of the last seven times this happened. Thiem became the first Austrian to reach the final. This was Thiem's third runner-up finish in as many major finals.

Dominic Thiem is an Austrian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals, which he first achieved in March 2020. Thiem has won 17 ATP Tour singles titles, including a Grand Slam title at the 2020 US Open where he came back from two sets down to defeat Alexander Zverev in the final. With the win, Thiem became the first male player born in the 1990s to claim a Major singles title, as well as the first Austrian to win the US Open singles title. He had previously reached three other Major finals, finishing runner-up at the 2018 and 2019 French Open to Rafael Nadal, and at the 2020 Australian Open to Novak Djokovic. Thiem was also runner-up at the 2019 and 2020 ATP Finals, where he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev, respectively.