Twenty years after his first visit to Melbourne Park, and with 10 titles and 33 straight victories behind him, Novak Djokovic has come to regard Rod Laver Arena as his personal fiefdom. But in a performance that will reverberate around the game for many months to come, Jannik Sinner stormed the citadel to end the Serbian world No 1’s unblemished record at the business end of the Australian Open in emphatic style, a 6-1, 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3 victory propelling the Italian to the first grand slam final of his career.
Given that Sinner is ranked fourth in the world and came into the match with two victories from his past three matches against Djokovic, it feels almost wrong to cast the result as an upset. Yet an upset it undeniably was, even on a day when the winner of 24 majors was such a pale imitation of his normal self that, for the first time in almost 400 grand slam matches, he was unable to fashion a single break point.
“The streak was going to end one day,” said Djokovic after suffering his first loss at Melbourne Park since Hyeon Chung ambushed him in the fourth round six years ago. “It was going to happen, and at least I gave everything I possibly can under circumstances where I didn’t play well, and I lost to a player that has a very good chance to win his first slam.
“He’s deservedly in the finals. He outplayed me completely today.
“I was, in a way, shocked with my level, you know, 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.
“Not a very pleasant feeling playing this way. But at the same time, credit to him for doing everything better than me in every aspect of the game.”
For all the brilliance Sinner showed last year to thwart Djokovic, first in the group stage of the ATP Finals and then in the Davis Cup semi-finals, this was a challenge of a wholly different magnitude. The five-set format traditionally affords Djokovic time to problem-solve, to impose his all-court game and experience, to retrieve lost causes. Rod Laver Arena has provided the backdrop to so many lung-sapping comebacks and injury-defying feats of mental, physical and emotional resilience by Djokovic, yet Sinner was ready to answer the summons.
Steady of mind and sure of shot, the Italian absorbed all the history and experience and big-match nous on the opposite side of the net. He calmly took advantage of Djokovic’s worst ever start to a grand slam match. He resisted the inevitable fightback that followed, when the Serb saved a match point in the third-set tiebreak. And he held firm down the stretch, something that not even Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray have been able to do over the concluding weekend of the tournament.
It was enough to end Djokovic’s flawless record of 20 wins from 20 previous matches in the final two rounds, and to suggest that Sinner may be ready to achieve still greater things when he faces Daniil Medvedev, a 5-7, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 winner over Alexander Zverev, in Sunday’s final.
“Last year, especially the end of the year, gave me confidence that I could potentially do some good results in grand slams,” said Sinner. “But in the other way, you still have to show it.
“I realised, especially the first sets, he was not playing that great, but I tried to have the intensity as high as possible – and I took the chance.”
It seemed possible that chance might have passed the 22-year-old by when Djokovic raised his level to force a third-set tiebreak. Twice the Serb opened up an early two-point advantage, and although Sinner quickly cancelled out those deficits, he was thwarted by a brilliant piece of defensive play from the defending champion as he served at 5-4. A stinging first serve then brought up a match point for the Italian, but Djokovic held his nerve and his length to draw an error, a pattern he repeated after courageously venturing forward to bring up set point. With a look of grim resolve, Djokovic turned to the Serbian contingent in the stands and raised a clenched fist. Game on.
Even with the 36-year-old still far from his best, it was hard to shake the suspicion that he would somehow find a way to salvage the situation, just as he did at Wimbledon in 2022, when he cancelled out a two-set deficit against Sinner to win in five. In fact, the woeful nature of Djokovic’s performance over the first hour and 14 minutes, in which he made a whopping 29 unforced errors to fall two sets to love down, only made it seem likelier that he would climb from the canvas as he has done so often in the past. Having overcome injury, illness and dropped sets against Dino Prizmic, Alexei Popyrin and Taylor Fritz earlier in the tournament, this was surely just one more hurdle to be surmounted.
“It’s not easy, because you are so close and then, in your mind, the way is long still,” said Sinner. “But in the other way, I sat down, I tried to think also that the score was two sets to one for me, so it was positive.”
Thwarted by Djokovic in the first grand slam semi-final of his career at Wimbledon last year, Sinner would not be denied again. He outrallied the Serb to break in the fourth game, and remained impregnable on serve. Finally, 55 minutes after holding his first match point, he stepped up to the line with a second, battering an unreachable forehand approach into the corner to claim the last of his 31 winners and end, for the time being at least, Djokovic’s extraordinary reign on Australian soil.
“I didn’t feel really myself on the court during this tournament,” said Djokovic. “One can say semi-finals is a great result, of course, but I always expect the highest of myself, and it wasn’t meant to be today.
“Congrats to him. He just played a flawless match.”