Australian Open: Sinner beat Djokovic and is a finalist

The Italian Jannik Sinner ended with the record of 33 consecutive victories in the Australian Open of Novak Djokovic preventing the Serbian from conquering an unprecedented 25th Grand Slam to continue strengthening his legend.

The Italian, world number four, won the semifinal 6-1, 6-2, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3 to the world number one Djokovic, undeterred by dropping a set — his first in this edition of the tournament — against the king of the Australian Open.

Sinner, 22, will play his first grand final on Sunday against the winner of the duel between Daniil Medvedev (N.3) and Alexander Zverev (N.6).

The 36-year-old Serbian could not cope with his opponent in the early stages of the match and committed 29 unforced errors during the first two sets, in an unusually sloppy performance compared to the eight that Sinner committed.

The Serb lacked his usual metronomic regularity, while the focused Sinner, unconcerned about facing a man who had never lost a semi-final in Melbourne Park took a 3-0 lead.

The Italian broke serve again in the sixth game and took the set when Djokovic went long with a forehand.

The decibels on center court increased at the beginning of the second set and Djokovic he seemed to have pulled himself together, but the error count continued to climb.

Sinner, who defeated the Serbian in two of their last three meetings, broke serve in the third game to consolidate his dominance in the match.

Djokovic He urged the public to support him and the shouts of “Nole” echoed in the packed stadium, but Sinner He broke serve again and was two sets behind.

The match was stopped at 5-5, 40-40, while the medical staff attended to a fan in the audience, but the Serbian played down the interruption to maintain serve and the set went to sudden death.

Djokovic took the lead, but Sinner came back and got his first match point, although he sent a forehand into the net.

The world number one made no mistake when presented with the opportunity to take the set, raising his fist to the crowd, but the Italian kept his nerve to close out the match and end an era at Melbourne Park.

“It was a very tough game,” Sinner said. “I started very well. He failed in the first two sets. I felt that he was not very well on the court, so I tried to keep pushing.”

Djokovic, a 10-time Australian Open champion who had not lost in this tournament since 2018, was aiming to break his record with a 25th Grand Slam title, but Sinner broke the script in spectacular fashion.

At the end of the match, Djokovic said in a press conference that he played one of his worst matches in a Grand Slam.

“He completely dominated me today. In a way, I was surprised by my level, in the negative sense. There was almost nothing that I did well in the first two sets. I think it is one of the worst matches I have played in Grand Slam. It was not It was nice for me to play like that. But bravo for him for having done everything better than me. I tried, I fought, I was able to raise my level a little in the third set, I played a tie-break and saved a ball from match. But again, in the fourth, I played a very bad game at 2-1. Overall my level of play was not good at all.”

The Serbian did not have any breaking points for the first time in a Grand Slam.

“This statistic says a lot of things. The first thing is that he served with great precision. Me, it’s hard to say… There were a lot of negative things in my game today: The backhand, the shift, the forehand, the rest… “Everything was insufficient. He played a perfect game.”

Regarding the end of the winning series of 33 consecutive matches at the Australian Open, “Nole” said “The series had to end one day. At least I did everything I could in circumstances where I didn’t play well. I lost against a player who has a good chance of winning his first Grand Slam. This city is very special to me, it is the Grand Slam in which I have had the most success. “I just hope he gets the chance to come back, at least one more time.”