The star of Jannik Sinner, number four in the world, appeared this Friday and the Italian brought out his best tennis to overturn Novak Djokovic’s unbeaten record and guarantee a place in the Australian Open decision.
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Djokovic shocked by defeat
The Italian beat the Serbian number 1 in the world by 3 sets to 1 with partials of 6/1 6/2 6/7 (8/6) 6/3 after 3h22min on the central court Rod Laver Arena.
He defeats his rival for the third time in seven meetings and will compete, on Sunday, at 5:30 am, in his first career Grand Slam final against Alexander Zverev, sixth placed, or Daniil Medvedev, third.
Djokovic hadn’t known what a defeat was like in the tournament since the 2018 round of 16 against South Korean Hyeon Chung. From then on, there were 33 consecutive victories with titles in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023 and an absence in 2022 due to the vaccine issue. Nole had won all ten previous semi-final games in the tournament where he is the biggest champion with ten cups.
In the game’s numbers, efficiency stands out. Sinner hit 31 winning balls and missed 28 compared to 52 errors from the Serbian who hit 32 winners. Sinner’s serve was incredible, giving Djokovic no chance while he took advantage of five of the eleven opportunities he had.
Sinner goes into the decider with just one set lost and fair to Djokovic.