MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Jannik Sinner defeated Novak Djokovic to reach the men's Australian Open final, ending the 10-time champion's unbeaten semifinal streak at Melbourne Park.
The 22-year-old Italian broke Djokovic's serve twice in each of the first two sets, but missed a match point in the third set in a 6-1, 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-3 win on Friday earned him a place in a Grand Slam singles final for the first time.
On his second match point, 55 minutes later, he made no mistake and completed his third win in four straight meetings since a straight-set loss to Djokovic in last year's Wimbledon semifinals.
“It’s always nice to have a player like that that you can learn from,” said Sinner in his TV interview on the pitch. “I lost in the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year and learned a lot from it. The confidence I had at the end of last year certainly convinced me that I could play against the best players in the world.”
Sinner is the youngest player to reach the men's final in Australia since Djokovic's first title in 2008. He will play for the championship on Sunday against either third seed Daniil Medvedev or No. 6 seed Alexander Zverev.
Djokovic's bid to claim an 11th Australian title and 25th major title overall will have to wait.
He hadn't lost a game at Melbourne Park since 2018 and was on a 33-game winning streak in the season's first major. Every time he had previously won a quarterfinal in Australia, Djokovic went on to win the hardcourt title.
“He deserves to be in the final. He completely surpassed me,” said Djokovic. “You see, I was in some ways shocked at my level – in the worst case scenario. I didn't do much right in the first two sentences.
“Yeah, I guess this is one of the worst Grand Slam matches I've ever played. At least that’s what I remember.”
Sinner won the first two sets in less than 1 1/4 hours, making for an amazing start to the match.
But Djokovic increased his serve rate, reduced his unforced errors and increased the pressure on Sinner in the third round.
Djokovic was serving at 5-5 and at deuce when play was stopped while a spectator in the stands received medical attention. After rescue workers helped the man get out, Djokovic held serve and saved a match point in the tiebreaker at 5-6.
Djokovic won three points in a row to force a fourth set, but immediately ran into trouble again on his serve.
In the second game of the fourth game he fought off three break points to keep the deficit at 15:40, but in the fourth game Sinner managed a decisive break of serve in which he won five points in a row from a deficit of 40:0 and with 3 :1 took the lead.
Constant chants of “Nole, Nole, Nole, Nole” echoed around Rod Laver Arena between the big spots of Djokovic fans cheering on their champion and giving him a football atmosphere.
It helped increase the intensity of both players.
The referee asked the spectators three times to remain silent while Sinner served for the game.
The loss to Djokovic at Wimbledon has become a turning point in their rivalry. After losing the first three meetings, Sinner won two of the next three – all in November – in the group stage of the ATP Finals in Turin and in the Davis Cup semi-finals.
Sinner was the only player in the Final Four who didn't drop a set in the tournament, and he spent nearly four hours less on court in five rounds than Djokovic, who had to go to four sets three times.
Nevertheless, the chances against Sinner, who was number four, were good.
But he played calm, nearly flawless tennis in the first two sets, putting pressure on Djokovic's serve in a relatively cool 21 degrees Celsius and a light breeze.
He held his serve with relative ease against a player who was in his 48th Grand Slam semifinal.
As always, Djokovic put everything together to help Sinner win. But he had few chances and failed to grab a break point in the match – the first time he had experienced that in a completed Grand Slam match.
The 36-year-old Serbian star missed his first chance and became only the third person in history to win 11 titles at a Grand Slam event – Rafael Nadal has 14 French Open titles and Margaret Court won 11 Australian Open Women's title.
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AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis