Jannik Sinner did not fall into the trap of commenting on draw projections when quizzed about his potential semifinal showdown against Novak Djokovic.
Sinner, who entered this year's Australian Open as the fourth seed, the highest he's ever been seeded at the Melbourne Slam, is among the contenders to win the tournament in a fortnight's time. If it happens, it will be the first Grand Slam title of his young career.
But the Italian will most likely need to topple Novak Djokovic in the semifinal and possibly Carlos Alcaraz in the final if the seedings hold. Sinner and Djokovic have played four matches on the ATP Tour so far, with the Serbian ace leading the head-to-head 3-1.
The 22-year-old famously defeated Djokovic in a group-stage match at last year's ATP Finals in an epic. Outside tour-level competitions, Sinner beat Djokovic in a critical semifinal clash at the 2023 Davis Cup last November, saving three successive match points.
When the draw for the first Grand Slam of 2024 came out, all eyes were fixated on where Jannik Sinner would land, and as fate would have it, he was in the same half as that of World No. 1 and 10-time champion Djokovic, and can only meet him by the semifinal stage.
Sinner, who opened his 2024 Australian Open account without too much fuss by beating Botic van de Zandschulp in straight sets, refused to be drawn into looking beyond his next opponent. Sinner stated there is a "long" way to go before contemplating possibly playing Djokovic in the semis.
"It's Sunday today (smiling). It's so long to go. But for sure you are aiming for these matches, for sure. But in the other way, I go day by day, to be honest. You have one job at a time. Today was one player. Wednesday is going to be a different player, and you have to try to beat this guy, no? And that's it, to be honest."
"I don't want to say much more about this at the moment, because I feel like that there is still a lot of work to do to get to this point. So yeah, let's see. Nobody can tell the future. As I said, obviously we aim to play big matches in big stadiums, so let's see. It's going to be an interesting tournament."
While Sinner's progress to the second round was seamless on Sunday, Djokovic met resistance in beating an inspired Dino Prizmic, an 18-year-old qualifier from Split, Croatia, needing the full fours and four sets to reach to advance.
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