(CNN) — World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who is seeking a record 25 Grand Slam titles, suffered a crushing defeat against Italian No. 4 Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open semi-finals on Friday.
The 22-year-old Sinner defeated Djokovic 6-1, 6-2, 7-6 (6) 6-3 in a close match at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.
The defeat ended Djokovic’s 33-match winning streak at the tournament and is his first defeat in Melbourne since 2018.
The Italian Sinner, the first to reach an Australian Open singles final, overcame Djokovic in the first two sets.
Djokovic raised his level in the third set.
There was a delay of just under five minutes due to a medical emergency in the stands. According to the ESPN broadcast, the spectator was receptive and was able to leave the stands on his own to receive medical attention. Djokovic would take the last two points of the match before Sinner forced a tiebreaker.
The pattern of the tiebreak was the same as in the third set, but Djokovic overcame his opponent to take the set 7-6 (6), giving new hope to the 24-time Grand Slam winner.
This was Sinner’s first set loss in this year’s tournament.
However, Sinner did not let this affect his performance. He quickly recovered from his disappointment in the tie-break and won the match in impressive style by winning the fourth set 6-3.
Sinner will now advance to his first Grand Slam final, where he will face the winner of this Sunday’s match between No. 3 Daniil Medvedev and No. 6 Alexander Zverev.
—CNN’s Thomas Schlachter contributed to this report.
(tagstotranslate)Australian Open