Jannik Sinner showed at the Australian Open at the latest that he is one of the world’s top tennis players. A Grand Slam victory is within reach.
Von Andreas Thies, Melbourne
There is hardly anything more reliable in the world than a metronome. Without making any mistakes, the device gives the musicians a beat that they can follow. It fulfills this task flawlessly. It’s all the more surprising when something goes wrong. That was exactly the case on Friday (January 26th, 2024), on this sunny, if not hot, afternoon in Melbourne. Because then the metronome of tennis, Novak Djokovic, gave up the ghost unannounced.
The failure of the tennis metronome
The Serbian, who excels in sports, has not only always been there when it comes to big victories in recent years. On the court, too, Djokovic managed like no other player before to minimize mistakes, force his opponent to play one more ball, hide his own doubts and mercilessly expose those of his opponents.
But it all ended in the semifinals of the Australian Open, the tournament that Djokovic had won ten times so far. After a little more than three hours, the run for title number eleven was over. Djokovic lost to Jannik Sinner in four sets and had no chance for large parts of the match.
Djokovic without a breakball for the first time
Even a good hour after the match, Djokovic was still at a loss, sitting in the press conference in his supplier’s purple jacket, repeatedly hunching his shoulders and talking about one of the worst Grand Slam matches of his career. A statement that was supported by what happened on the pitch. At the end of the second set, barely more than 70 minutes had passed and 88 points had been played, there were 29 unforced errors on the Serb’s side. A number that for Djokovic, especially in big matches, is usually only recorded at the end of a long game of four or five sets.
But Sinner took the game out of Djokovic’s hands. Sinner didn’t allow anything, especially when it came to his own serve, and over the course of the match he racked up one almost historic Djokovic statistic after another. So far, Djokovic had not only won 10 titles in 10 finals in Melbourne. The world number one had never lost a semi-final here either.
Djokovic’s last defeat in Melbourne was 2,195 days ago; he last lost to South Korean Hyeon Chung on January 22, 2018. To this day, in Djokovic’s almost 19-year career, there had not been a Grand Slam match in which he had not earned at least one break point. All of that came to an end with the defeat against Sinner.
Djokovic wants to go back to Melbourne
Accordingly, Djokovic was upset about his own performance in the press conference: “I was shocked at my game. I didn’t do much right in the first two sets.” The now 36-year-old is aware of his advanced tennis age: “Melbourne is a special city for me. I hope I have another chance to come back and take the emotions with me.”
While Djokovic is slowly approaching the end of his career, Sinner could only be starting now. The world number four traveled to the first Grand Slam of the year with self-confidence. He had won two of the last three meetings against Djokovic last fall and performed accordingly: “I tried to stay relaxed and follow my match plan closely. That worked very well today.”
Sinner the new pacesetter?
The South Tyrolean is not a born charismatic. On the pitch, Sinner is very sober, apart from the fist that he now clenches after every point he wins. His celebration after the win against Djokovic was also muted, especially considering the importance of this victory. “I don’t think you can control these emotions. It means an incredible amount to me to have defeated Novak, but on the other hand the tournament isn’t over yet,” Sinner looked back on the biggest win of his career and barely made a dent in the press conference a mine.
Reaching the final is the current highlight of a career that has virtually no setbacks, and in which Sinner has, for years, almost mantra-like placed the learning process above individual victories and defeats. Certainly, he had to accept some bitter defeats at Grand Slams, especially in 2023, where he was completely unexpectedly defeated by Daniel Altmaier at the French Open and in the brutal humidity of New York, where he lost out to Alexander Zverev at the US Open.
But Sinner has also established himself at the top of the world rankings in the last twelve months. The calmness of his mind can now also be found in his confident playing. So Sinner is preparing to celebrate his debut title on Sunday at one of the four tournament highlights of the tennis year. If everything goes as planned, he could soon become the new pacesetter in men’s tennis. Although perhaps one of the quieter kinds.