Novak Djokovic is simply unbeatable at Wimbledon. The record Grand Slam champion clearly won his semi-final against the Italian Jannik Sinner 6: 3, 6: 4, 7: 6 (7: 4) in the grass classic on Friday and is thus in the final in London for the ninth time . For Djokovic (36) it was the 34th win in a row at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The industry superstar last lost in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 2017.
Against Sinner, he converted his first match point after 2:46 hours and is aiming for his eighth Wimbledon title on Sunday. He would draw level with Swiss Roger Federer, who retired last year. In the final on Sunday, Djokovic will face either world number one Carlos Alcaraz from Spain or Russian Daniil Medvedev.
“Semifinals are always close matches. The result doesn’t quite show how close it really was,” said Djokovic after his largely unchallenged success. “Jannik could have won the third set, he missed a few chances and gave me the tie-break,” said Djokovic. “He has shown that he is the leader of the new generation.”
Sinner started boldly in his first Grand Slam semi-final and earned two breakballs in Djokovic’s first service game. But Djokovic fended off both and instead made an early break for his part. In the period that followed, Sinner scored a few spectacular points. The Italian often wanted too much and made too many mistakes. Djokovic wasn’t in serious danger and took the first set after 40 minutes.
In the second round, Djokovic immediately took the service from his opponent. The defending champions seemed to be heading for a leisurely afternoon when referee Richard Haigh suddenly stepped on the scene. Djokovic had just made the break when the referee deducted a point in the following service game for Djokovic moaning too loudly on a backhand. Haigh rated Djokovic’s action as unsportsmanlike and a disturbance to Sinner, which Djokovic could not understand at all. “Something like this has never happened to me in my career. Maybe it was an echo from the roof.”
Shortly thereafter, the referee Djokovic also gave a warning for exceeding the time on the first serve. The defending champion boiled inside, but remained calm on the outside and brought his service game through to make it 3-1. After 1:39 hours he made the 2:0 set lead perfect.
Last year, Djokovic and Sinner met in the quarterfinals. At that time, the South Tyrolean had won the first two sets, but then lost in five sets. There was no such turnaround this time on Center Court, which was covered due to the rain in London. Sinner didn’t give up and even won two set balls at 5: 4. With his great experience, Djokovic fended them off and took the third set in the tie-break. There is an age difference of 14 years and 86 days between him and Sinner – never since the introduction of professional tennis in 1968 has this been greater in a men’s singles at Wimbledon.
