S.Rajesh
Jannik Sinner completed a statement win in four sets over top seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic 6-1, 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-3 at the Australian Open on Friday to enter his first slam final where he will take on Daniil Medvedev who got past Alexander Zverev after a rousing comeback from two sets down 5-7, 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(5), 6-3 in another match that finished after midnight at Melbourne. Sinner’s win snapped Djokovic’s 33 match win streak at Melbourne that lasted 2195 days since his last loss to Hyeon Chung in 2018. The 33 match streak for Djokovic tied Monica Seles for the longest streak at Australian Open in Open Era. Sinner becomes the first Italian male player to beat a World No. 1 in a Grand Slam and also the first Italian man to reach Australian Open final.
The Australian Open final will not feature one of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Djokovic for the first time since 2005 when Marat Safin beat Lleyton Hewitt. The tennis world has been waiting for a “change of the guard” moment in men’s tennis for a long time and this semifinal win for Sinner coupled with Carlos Alcaraz’s win at Wimbledon in 2023 beating Djokovic could finally mark the start of the hand over of the Big 3 to the younger generation. The signs were present when Sinner made an excellent start breaking Djokovic in his first service game with a couple of deep returns and pushed him to the corners before finishing at the net with a swing volley. Sinner continued to put pressure on Novak’s serve and went on to win the first set 6-1.
The second set too continued in the same fashion as the fourth seed was able to do to Djokovic what he had done to multiple players at Melbourne-rush him for time and push him back to the alleys from where he couldn’t dictate play resulting in him hitting a lot more errors than he had hit in the past. Djokovic fought hard in an attempt to retrieve the break but Sinner didn’t yield the advantage to take a two sets lead.
The third set saw Djokovic raise his level further as he started getting the crowd into the match after hitting a few trademark forehand winners. This set saw both players hold on to their serve without too much trouble and it went to a tie break. Djokovic went up an early mini break but Sinner came back with some big shots and he reached match point at 6-5. The Italian had the match on his hands but a weak forehand on match point helped Djokovic turn the tie-break in his favour as he took the third set tie break 8-6.
This was the scenario which had played out many times in slams when Djokovic and other members of “Big three” Federer and Nadal would stop young challengers with a stirring comeback. This time the young Italian ensured it wouldn’t happen as he showed mental resilience to bounce back from missed match point to get an early break in fourth set. Djokovic tried to fashion another comeback but Sinner played some clutch tennis to come up with some wonderful serves and big ground stokes when needed to complete the win in 4 sets ending with a forehand winner. The match was held in day session after a new modified schedule from 2023 switched both men’s semifinals to Friday. There was some controversy in 2024 regarding match scheduling since Djokovic had played 15 matches in a row in night session which had never happened before. The win for Sinner was the biggest of his career and marked his third win over Djokovic in 4 meetings since November. The astonishing feature was that it was the first time in a completed slam match that Djokovic didn’t have a single break point. The loss also ended Djokovic’s perfect record of 20-0 in semifinals and finals at Melbourne.
“I was in a way, shocked with my level, in a bad way. There was not much I was doing right in the first two sets. I guess this is one of the worst Grand Slam matches I’ve ever played. At least that I remember.” Djokovic mentioned in post-match press conference. “But at the same time, credit to him for doing everything better than me, in every aspect of the game.”
Sinner said the matches he played against Djokovic in 2023 helped him. “For me was a huge privilege at the end of last year to play against him three times in 10 days, because obviously you can practise with him but the match is different. He added “I feel for sure helped me in one way but in the other way a Grand Slam is also mentally different. I just tried to play as relaxed as possible but also have the right game plan. I think today it worked really well.”
It was a battle of attrition in second semifinal as two players who had already spent over 16 hours on court faced each other. After a strange first set when Zverev lost a double break 4-1 lead but still held on to win the set 7-5 with a late break. There were some spectacularly long rallies one of which lasted 51 shots ended by a magical half volley winner from Zverev. The sixth seed who beat second seed Carlos Alcaraz in quarters played more aggressive in the second set and took a two sets lead.
Medvedev has shown great mental strength having come back from two sets down earlier to beat Emil Ruusuvuori in a match that ended close to 4 AM. He had also battled 5 sets against Hubert Hurkacz and despite looking weak at the start of the third set, he stuck to his plan trying to shorten rallies on his serve and he was successful as Zverev made few more errors. The Russian won the third set on tie break and the fourth set too went to another breaker. Zverev was up 5-4 with a mini break but a spot of good fortune when a mishit return turned out to be a winner helped Medvedev win the set to take it to a decider. Both players looked weary as the match crossed 4 hours and it was Zverev who blinked first making a rash of errors to drop serve at 2-2. This would prove to be crucial as Medvedev held on to complete the win and reach his third Australian Open final and sixth overall.
“The slice was intentional, not the backspin against the wind. Sometimes you need to be lucky and today’s my day.” Medvedev said about the lucky return winner and added that he hoped experience would help him. “First final, I think it’s always different for everyone. I’m sure some guys went out on the first final and felt so good and they just managed to win it. Some would go and it would be tough mentally and they would lose. I have no idea how Jannik is going to be, but me, I have this experience. I will try my best. I will fight for my life and let’s see who wins.”
“End of the second set I started to lose energy. I started to not feel so fresh anymore,” Zverev who is diabetic said after the match. “I got a bit sick after the Alcaraz match with a bit of fever so that didn’t help the recovery and I did play quite a lot”
