The winner of the last two tournaments, Sinner led 6-4 in the duel against the Serbian, who is on his way to his 25th Grand Slam trophy, the latter reached the top four in an adventurous and easier way: the last time he won a set in the third round, because the Czech Jakub Mensik could not stand against him, and in the quarter-finals Lorenzo Musetti already had a two-game lead when he had to give up the fight due to an injury, Magyar recalled in his summary Telegraph Office.
In light of this, the match started according to the paper form, Sinner won the first game with a confident game, but in the second, the 38-year-old Serbian “arrived” in the match and equalized. After two years and three matches, Djokovic won a set again against Sinner, the last time he was able to do so was in the semi-finals of the 2024 Melbourne tournament.
The third act brought a head-to-head fight, in the first half, Sinner broke Djokovic at the best moment, when he was leading 5:4, and thus came within arm’s reach of his third AO final in a row.
The fourth set started with Djokovic’s break, and the Serbian excellence took it all the way in a huge fight, thus winning the decisive fifth set after more than three hours of play. At the beginning of the last set, the Serbian had to fend off five break points – he did it all with more and more beautiful shots – and then at 3:3 the indomitable veteran took the South Tyrolean tennis player’s serve and saved three more break points to bring his own (5:3). The excitement increased, both mobilized their final reserves, Djokovic made a huge mistake on the match point, but on his third attempt the Italian knocked the ball out.
Australian Open 2026, Melbourne
men’s singles, semi-finals:
- Novak Djokovic (Serbia, 4th) – Jannik Sinner (Italian, 2nd) 3:6, 6:3, 4:6, 6:4, 6:4
- Carlos Alcaraz (spain, 1.) – Alexander Zverev (Germany, 3rd) 6:4, 7:6 (7–5), 6:7 (3–7), 6:7 (4–7), 7:5
(Cover photo: Novak Djokovic celebrates his victory on January 30, 2026. Photo: Tingshu Wang / Reuters)
