Young Italian star Jannik Sinner can be praying its Eleventh-time fortunate for opponents bidding to dethrone Novak Djokovic in an Australian Open semi-final.
The tremendous Serb has not misplaced any of his 10 earlier semi-finals at Melbourne Park, but additionally gone on to win the title each time.
Djokovic made his grand slam debut on the Open in 2005 and three years later claimed his maiden main title, defeating French fan favorite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
On a 33-match Open win streak, the undisputed king of Melbourne Park was speaking down his flawless semi-final document after accounting for American Taylor Fritz within the quarters.
“Let’s be humble a little bit,” the world No.1 mentioned as he drew inside two wins of an unprecedented twenty fifth grand slam singles title.
“Of course, confidence is there but matches are only going to get tougher.”
While historical past is not in his favour, Sinner is the one member of the lads’s closing 4 but to drop a set and defeated Djokovic of their most up-to-date match-up within the Davis Cup semi-finals in November.
Indeed, the Italian was even in a position to benefit from the unprecedented feat of beating Djokovic twice in the identical day, in singles and doubles, on the Cup in Malaga.
But the world No.4 has solely reached the final-four of a grand slam as soon as beforehand – at Wimbledon final 12 months when he was eradicated by the Serb in straight units.
Sinner scrambled from 1-5 down towards Andre Rublev within the second-set tiebreaker earlier than downing the Russian within the quarter-finals, and he believes it exhibits he’s prepared for the 24-time slam winner.
“There were a lot of pressure points,” the 22-year-old mentioned.
“I handled it in a good way, in a right way, and hopefully it’s going to help me for the next match.
“Novak has an unimaginable document right here.”
Sinner can create his own piece of history with victory in Friday’s first semi-final, joining Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as just the third player to beat the Serb at a grand slam, the ATP Finals and in Davis Cup.
World No.3 Daniil Medvedev or German No.6 seed Alexander Zverev, who take to Rod Laver Arena on Friday night, await the winner.
Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion, has a 5-2 record in grand slam semi-finals and has won both his previous last-four encounters at Melbourne Park.
It’s in the finals that the Russian’s luck has run dry, dispatched by Djokovic in 2021 before collapsing to a crushing five-set defeat to fast-finishing Nadal the following year.
Zverev will get his second shot at making the ultimate in Melbourne after withering to a four-set loss to Austrian and eventual runner-up Dominic Thiem in 2020.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
