So yes, Jannik Sinner is really very strong, with his forehand capable of demolishing the mountains of his native South Tyrol rock by rock. But still. When, after having missed his first two sets and saving a match point in the tie-break of the third, Novak Djokovic won this set, we said to ourselves that the machine was finally launched. That the 36-year-old Serbian would once again rise from the dead to snatch with his teeth a 34th victory in a row at the Australian Open, then a 35th Sunday in the final.
In the end, it didn’t happen. For the first time in his looooong career, the world No. 1 lost in the semi-final this Friday at the Rod Laver Arena (6-1, 6-2, 6-7 [6], 6-3). He will therefore not improve his double record, 10 crowns at the Australian Open and 24 Grand Slam titles. The fault above all lies with his young Italian opponent, who will play his first and certainly not last final in a major against Daniil Medvedev or Alexander Zverev. Sinner (22) has now won three of his last four matches against Djokovic, all played since mid-November.
The current 4th player in the world is the man in good shape of the moment, but he admitted on the court, in his post-triumph discussion, that he had not found his immense opponent to his liking. A few minutes later, with his head lowered and a forced smile, the Serb used the press room as a confessional.
I was really shocked at my level, in the bad sense of the word. I didn’t do much good in the first two sets. I think this is one of my worst Grand Slam matches, as far as I can remember. It’s not a good feeling to play like this. But at the same time, it is necessary [Sinner] congratulate him for doing everything better than me, in every aspect of the game.”
The most incredible statistic from this historic match (and for once, the adjective is not too strong)? Djokovic did not get a break point for 3 hours and 22 minutes. This is quite simply the first time that he has suffered such a drought in a Grand Slam tournament. And as the Serbian admits, supported by data from our partner Sofascore, Sinner did everything better than him (with the exception of the percentage of points on the first serve).
The start of the Australian fortnight had already not looked like a walk for the captain, more or less ill and suffering against the Croatian Dino Prizmic and the Australian Alexei Popyrin, defeated in four rounds. But this is not the first time that “Novak-the-mystique” attacks a major while being diminished (we remember the famous hamstring tear last year, for which we are still awaiting the proof promised by the champion).
The start of a new era, really?
And then behind, he had seriously raised the tone, as the Argentinian Tomas Etcheverry and the unfortunate Adrian Mannarino (two bubbles then three small games won by the Frenchman) can attest. The quarter-final against the American Taylor Fritz (beaten in four sets) was not a demonstration of tennis, but from there one can imagine the Serbian falling from such a height this Friday…
On the rubble of this tennis earthquake, the famous question will arise. After the retirement of Roger Federer and the eternal convalescence of Rafael Nadal, will the stainless Djokovic (37 years old in May) be the last super-thirty-year-old giant to lower his flag, to give way to the young class of Sinner and Alcaraz, after leaving only crumbs for the intermediate generations (Thiem, Dimitrov and company)?
It is of course too early to say, and the king of the majors, with the discipline worthy of a stylite of the first Christian centuries, can still shut up the “Next Gen” and its countless haters in the spring at Roland -Garros. But one thing is certain. His dream of a calendar Grand Slam, shattered at the last moment in 2021 by Daniil Medvedev during the US Open final, was already stillborn at the end of January. If Rod Laver’s successor (the only man to have achieved this feat in the Open era in 1969) comes a day ago, it will certainly not be Novak Djokovic.