MELBOURNE, Australia — No one has been better than 10-time champion Novak Djokovic in this round of the Australian Open.
Every time he has won a quarterfinal at Melbourne Park – as he did against Taylor Fritz on Tuesday – he has gone on to win the title.
The odds are generally against its semifinal opponent. Perhaps even more so against fourth-seeded Jannik Sinner, who won a quarterfinal over No. 5 Andrey Rublev that didn’t start until 10:42 p.m. and didn’t end until 1:21 a.m. Wednesday.
Djokovic defeated Fritz 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in 3¾ hours to reach his record-extending 48th Grand Slam semi-final. Their match started late in the afternoon heat as US Open champion Coco Gauff’s previous win over Marta Kostyuk took more than three hours.
In an on-court interview with Australian player Nick Kyrgios, who is sidelined with a long-term injury, Djokovic made a light-hearted joke about having popcorn and watching Sinner vs. Rublev on late-night TV.
Afterwards, Djokovic said Sinner’s late finish would not be a factor in Friday’s semi-finals.
“What kind of benefit will I get? We have two days. I don’t see much benefit there,” he said. “There’s plenty of time to recover for whoever wins the game tonight.”
The start of the night session was pushed back from 9 pm and it could have been too late had defending women’s champion Aryna Sabalenka and Sinner not both won in straight sets.
Sinner was trailing 5-1 in the second set tiebreaker, but he won six consecutive points, starting with a spectacular crosscourt forehand, which changed the momentum and won the match 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-3. Made it in my name.
“I want to thank everyone for sticking around for so long,” Sinner said in his on-court interview. “It’s always a great pleasure to play here on this court. Time doesn’t really matter.”
Since losing to Djokovic in the Wimbledon semi-finals last year, Sinner has won two of his three matches against the 24-time major champion.
“I’m really lucky to face him again in one of the biggest tournaments in the world,” he said. “Glad I can play No. 1 in the world. He’s won here a few times!”
Sinner has not dropped a single set yet.
Djokovic, meanwhile, has spent more time on the court than ever before through five rounds at Melbourne Park – more than 15 hours – but he feels he is still getting into it. She is on a 33-match winning streak at the Australian Open – a tournament record she shares with her childhood inspiration, Monica Seles.
The first game lasted 16 minutes and the first set lasted 1 hour 24 minutes. Fritz got the first break of serve and held it to win the second set.
“Credit to him for playing really well. You could see he had a clear game plan. He was really sharp,” Djokovic said. “So it was definitely a struggle for me to play the first couple sets.
“In the third, things started to come together. I wasn’t serving well in the first two sets, and then in the third and fourth, great.”
Fritz saved the first 15 breakpoints, an impressive figure against one of the best returners of all time.
“My conversion was really bad but at the end of the day, I managed to break when it mattered,” Djokovic said.
The first game set the stage for a long, tough match. There were 24 points, which were nine deuces.
This was followed by the longest first set of the tournament. In the tiebreaker, Djokovic ended a 21-shot rally with a spectacular backhand crosscourt winner and secured five set points. He put a finger to his ear, nodded and kissed the side of the commentary box at the back of the court.
After two tight sets, Fritz was broken in the second game of the third when Djokovic converted his 16th chance. In the ninth game, Djokovic once again won at love and won the third game.
In the fourth, breaks were exchanged until Djokovic improved from 5–3 to 9–0 against Fritz in the career head-to-head.
Fritz said he felt for Sinner and Rublev, and the tournament schedule came up in the locker room after Daniil Medvedev’s second-round match didn’t start until after 11 p.m. and didn’t end until about 4 a.m. It takes hours of physio, treatment and finally, sleep after the match.
“It… ruins your whole watch,” Fritz said. “I pray for those people.”
Sinner said there were advantages to playing late, such as scheduling time for fans watching the broadcast in Italy.
“In the back of my mind I knew if I won I would have two days off, which even if you potentially finish very late, you might be OK,” he said. “But at this moment, you don’t look at the clock!”
