Jannik Sinner beats Novak Djokovic in Australian Open semi-final

It was a significant change of events for Novak Djokovic as he experienced his first defeat at the Australian Open since 2018. Jannik Sinner from Italy, who is ranked fourth in the tournament, managed to advance to his inaugural Grand Slam final.

Sinner came back strong after missing a chance to win the tie-break and defeated Djokovic, who is 36 years old, with a score of 6-1, 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3 in Serbia.

Djokovic's attempt to win his 11th title and surpass Margaret Court's record with a 25th major has come to an end.

A 22-year-old player who has sinned in the past is set to play against either Russian third seed Daniil Medvedev or German sixth seed Alexander Zverev in the final match on Sunday.

Medvedev, who once won the US Open, will face Zverev in the second semi-final on Friday at Melbourne Park. Zverev is hopeful of clinching his first Grand Slam title.

The couple is expected to step onto the Rod Laver Arena a little after 7:30 pm in their local time, which is 8:30 am GMT.

Djokovic has been ousted by Sinner, which guarantees a fresh name on the Australian Open men's singles trophy.

For the past six years, the Serbian player had a winning streak of 33 matches in Melbourne, starting after losing to Chung Hyeon in the fourth round.

Sinner expressed that the journey was extremely challenging. He will go down in history as the inaugural Italian to make it to a singles final in Melbourne.

I got the impression that Djokovic wasn't doing too well physically, so I continued to apply pressure. I aimed to prepare myself for the fourth set and began it with a strong start.

For quite some time now, specifically at Melbourne Park, folks have been asking themselves: what's keeping the younger players from beating Djokovic?

The main reason for Djokovic's success is often attributed to his exceptional skills, physical fitness, and mental strength; however, it could be argued that the most important factor is the tendency of his rivals to show excessive respect towards him.

Sinner entered the latest effort to knock off the top-ranked player in the world knowing that he had defeated Djokovic on two occasions in the recent past. These triumphs came at the ATP Finals and the Davis Cup Finals, which took place towards the end of the previous season.

The caveat here is that the victories were achieved within three sets.

Playing a tennis match in the elongated five-set format presents unique challenges. This was evident when Sinner held a commanding lead of two sets over Djokovic in the Wimbledon quarter-final of 2022 but eventually lost as Djokovic pushed the match to the maximum number of sets.

His elevated performance on Friday against Djokovic indicated his progress.

Right from the beginning, he made his famous rival feel pressured and made him commit a unusual number of mistakes. He also didn't give him any opportunities to score a point.

Sinner managed to win Djokovic's first serve game, and then proceeded to maintain his strong performance by breaking Djokovic's serve for the second time, leading to a 5-1 lead. He then finished off the set without any mistakes in 35 minutes.

The Melbourne audience was surprised to witness Djokovic experiencing a great deal of difficulty on the Rod Laver Arena, which is not a common occurrence.

It is quite a remarkable feat that no male tennis player had ever won so many Grand Slam matches after losing the opening set. In fact, Novak Djokovic has accomplished this incredible feat a total of 46 times. However, his journey became increasingly challenging following a second set where he was unable to control the number of unforced errors being made.

Sinner maintained his good form, however, Djokovic's performance slightly elevated in the third set while both players demonstrated a strong ability to hold serve.

In a very close match, Djokovic was able to win a tie-break after rescuing a point that could have been the match decider. Sinner, who played very well throughout the match, might have been confused about why they had to play a fourth set.

The Italian player did a great job in the beginning of the match and was able to create three chances to break Djokovic's serve, but unfortunately he wasn't successful. However, later on, Djokovic had a comfortable lead of 40-0 but unexpectedly couldn't hold onto it and ended up giving the Italian opponent the opportunity to break his serve and take the lead 3-1. This change in score ultimately determined the outcome of the match.

Sinner expressed his satisfaction with playing in his first final, stating that the confidence he had gained from the previous season has helped him maintain his belief that he can compete against the top players globally.

"I gained valuable knowledge from my loss at Wimbledon and it's just a natural part of my growth."