With his fifth 3-0 victory in a row, Jannik Sinner bursts into the semifinals at the Australian Open, where the world number 1 and record holder of victory in Melbourne, Novak Djokovic, awaits him, who perhaps hoped to avoid a new confrontation with sky blue. Neither the night time – the match started almost at midnight local time – nor some physical discomfort in the second match distracted the Italian from his task of demolishing his opponent, the Russian Andrey Rublev, beaten 6-4 , 7-6, 6-3.
The world no.5 could have been a treacherous rival with his powerful and aggressive game but Sinner was a wall, in his legs, in his arm and above all in his head, as he demonstrated in the tie break of the second set, when he was down 1-5 and won 7-5, with six consecutive points. At that point Rublev gave up and Djokovic will have begun to mentally prepare for a new challenge with the blue player who has beaten him twice in the last three matches.
The 22-year-old from Pusteria will play his second Grand Slam semi-final, after Wimbledon last year, and before him only Matteo Berrettini had reached that far in Australia among the Italian tennis players two years ago. Getting to the final will be a feat, but the Sinner at the beginning of 2024 is a concentration of confidence and determination. According to Paolo Bertolucci, Sinner has everything to win the tournament, but to do so he will have to overcome the Serbian. “Here’s Djokovic again, I beat him twice and I’m lucky to face the world number one – he said immediately -. It will be tough, I’ll give 100% and then we’ll see what happens”. “Sinner is playing perhaps the best tennis of his life and we have recently played very tight matches, you can always expect a lot from him”, the Serbian had previously said, when asked about his possible rival in the semi-final after eliminating the American Taylor Fritz by 7-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
The match was less smooth than the score suggests for the Italian, who however immediately demonstrated that he had full control of the serve, with which he won the second game at zero and then repelled every advance made by his rival. The turning point came in the fifth game, when the Russian lost serve to zero, forcing too much with his powerful forehand, and without further surprises it was 6-4. Sinner continued his march in the second game, but some concern arose when he started touching his abs. After the match he explained that it was instead “air in the stomach”, an annoyance that still slowed him down a bit, bringing the set to 6-6. Rublev felt that this could be his chance and with forehand accelerations he took the lead to 5-1, but the Sinner wall did not crumble and began to react, taking point after point to the decisive 7-5.
“It was difficult to play with Rublev, it was very tough. I could have lost both the first and second sets, he had many break points and I saved myself with the serve – said Sinner -. I don’t know how I got out of the tie break , I tried to play my service points and broke the serve twice. I like these moments, I train for these pressure points. I’m happy to have come out like this.”
The victory was not yet achieved, but now within reach, with Rublev who began to deal with the nightmare of the tenth defeat in as many quarters of a slam and the Italian ready to take advantage of the first opportunity to close it, which came with a break for 4-2. The conclusion was inevitable, at 6-3, the Russian heartbroken and the Italian “happy to be in the semi-final”. There was no controversy even over the time of the match, which ended in the middle of the night: “It’s a pleasure to play on this pitch, no matter what time it is”, declared Sinner, who will have until Friday to recover. And in the meantime Italy dreams.
Read the full article on ANSA.it