Jannik Sinner is in red-hot form ahead of his marquee semifinal clash against defending champion Novak Djokovic at the 2024 Australian Open.
The hard-hitting Italian is the only player who has yet to drop a set at this year's tournament. He beat the Dutch duo of Botic van de Zandschulp and Jesper De Jong to reach the third round, where he met his first-seeded opponent.
But Sinner was a class above Argentina's 26th seed, Sebastian Baez, who can count himself as fortunate to win four games in the contest given the irresistible form the fourth seed was in. The Italian's first test arrived at the start of the second week in a fourth-round match against big-hitting Karen Khachanov.
Sinner was stopped in his tracks at the same stage last year by eventual runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas. But he has improved by leaps and bounds ever since and defeated the Russian in three tight sets. In the quarterfinal, it looked like the 22-year-old met his match.
Sinner came extremely close to dropping his first set at the 2024 Australian Open to Andrey Rublev but recovered from 1-5 down in the second set tie-break to win. Rublev did not recover from the collapse, and Sinner seamlessly won the third set to advance.
It will be a semifinal clash that will set the pulse racing when Sinner plays top seed Djokovic. It will be their third meeting at the Grand Slam level. Djokovic has won the previous two, which were both contested at Wimbledon.
Sinner broke his duck in the head-to-head when he defeated Djokovic in the round-robin stage at last year's ATP Finals in his home country. A few weeks later, he would topple the World No. 1 for a second time in a crucial singles rubber at the Davis Cup.
The man from San Candido could join an elite band of only two men who have defeated Djokovic in three tournament levels: the ATP Finals, Davis Cup, and Grand Slam. They are Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, who have been Djokovic's longtime rivals.
Sinner has completed two-thirds of this record category, and should he emerge triumphant on Friday, he'll finally pride himself on beating Djokovic in those three competitions, which only two men have been successful so far.
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