Jannik Sinner ends Novak Djokovic’s Australian Open reign in semifinals

MELBOURNE, Australia — Jannik Sinner beat Novak Djokovic to reach the men's final of the Australian Open, ending the 10-time career champion's unbeaten streak in the semifinals at Melbourne Park.

The 22-year-old Italian broke Djokovic's serve twice in each of the first two sets, but missed a match point in the third set of a 6-1, 6-2, 6-7 victory (6 ), 6-3 Friday. earned him a place in the Grand Slam final for the first time.

On his second match point, 55 minutes later, he made no mistake and signed his third victory in four matches against Djokovic since his defeat against the world number 1 in the Wimbledon semi-finals last year.

“It’s always nice to have that kind of player you can learn from,” Sinner said in his on-field television interview. “I lost last year in the semi-final at Wimbledon and I learned a lot from that. The confidence from the end of last year has certainly allowed me to maintain the belief that I can compete against the best players in the world. world.”

Sinner is the youngest player to reach the men's final in Australia since Djokovic's first title in 2008. He will face either third-seeded Daniil Medvedev or No. 6 seed Alexander Zverev for the championship on Sunday.

Djokovic's bid for an 11th Australian title and 25th major title overall will have to wait.

He hadn't lost a match at Melbourne Park since 2018 (a fourth-round loss to Chung Hyeon) and was on a 33-match winning streak in the first major of the season. Every time he had won a quarter-final in Australia, Djokovic had won the title on hard court.

“He deserved it in the final. He completely dominated me,” Djokovic said. “Look, I was, in a way, shocked by my level – in a bad way. I didn't do much good in the first two sets.

“Yeah, I guess it was one of the worst Grand Slam matches I ever played. At least I remember it.”

Sinner won the first two sets in less than an hour and a half in a stunning start to the match.

But Djokovic increased his serving percentage, reduced his unforced errors and increased the pressure on Sinner in the third.

Djokovic was serving at 5-5 and tied when play was halted as a spectator received medical treatment in the stands. After paramedics helped the man out, Djokovic held serve and saved a match point at 5-6 in the tiebreaker.

Djokovic won three straight points to force a fourth set, but was immediately in trouble again on his serve.

He fended off three break points to stay down 15-40 in the second game of the fourth, but Sinner earned a decisive break of serve in the fourth game, winning five straight points from 40-0 down to take a 3-up lead. -1.

Continuous chants of “Nole, Nole, Nole, Nole” echoed around Rod Laver Arena between big points of Djokovic fans cheering on their champion.

This helped increase the intensity of both players.

The chair umpire asked spectators three times to be quiet while Sinner served for the match.

The defeat against Djokovic at Wimbledon became a turning point in their rivalry. After losing the first three meetings, Sinner won two of the next three – all in November – in the group stage of the ATP Finals in Turin and in the Davis Cup semi-finals.

Sinner was the only player in the final four not to drop a set in the tournament, and he spent almost four hours less on court over five rounds than Djokovic, who was taken to four sets three times.

Still, the odds were stacked against fourth-seeded Sinner.

But he played calm, near-perfect tennis in the first two sets and put pressure on Djokovic's serve in a relatively cool 21 degrees Celsius (70 Fahrenheit) and a light breeze.

Sinner held his serve with relative ease against a player playing in a 48th Grand Slam semi-final.

Djokovic rallied, as he always does, to give Sinner the win, but he couldn't see a break point in the match – the first time he has seen that in a completed Grand Slam match.

The 36-year-old Serbian star missed his first chance to be the third person in history to win 11 titles in any Grand Slam event: Rafael Nadal has 14 French Open titles and Margaret Court has won 11 women's titles at the Australian Open.