Novak Djokovic cannot realize his dream of a 25th singles Grand Slam title for the time being. In the semifinals of the Australian Open 2024, feared opponent Jannik Sinner was once again a size too big for the Serb, who has dominated the tennis world for more than a decade. The bankruptcy doesn’t come as a complete surprise. However, some statistics make you sit up and take notice.
At the Australian Open 2005, Novak Djokovic appeared at a Grand Slam for the first time. With the Russian Marat Safin a big chunk awaited, it was a crushing 0:6-2:6-1:6 defeat for Djokovic.
And yet this game, like the countless ones that followed, had something ahead of the defeat against Sinner: Djokovic at least earned a break point against Safin, which he even used.
However, the now 36-year-old was unable to do this against the Italian for the first time in his major history. At 1:6, 2:6, 7:6 and 3:6, Sinner didn’t have to fend off a single breakball.
Australian Open 2024: Jannik Sinner on the trail of the tennis legends
With his victory, Sinner also secured numerous other entries in the history books: The 22-year-old is the youngest Australian Open finalist since Djokovic in 2008, the first Italian ever to defeat a number one singles player at a Grand Slam (previously 23 defeats ) and the first Italian in the final in Melbourne anyway.
Also more than impressive: the youngster won nine of his last ten games against opponents from the top 5 of the ATP rankings.
He beat Djokovic alone three times, Daniil Medvedev three times, Andrey Rublev twice and Carlos Alcaraz once. The only defeat came against Djokovic in the final of the 2023 ATP Finals.
Another statistic underlines what a great future Sinner could have. Since the introduction of the computer world rankings in 1973, only one player has won more often against the world number one in his first six attempts. Sinner won four times, Nadal achieved this five times.