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3 hours ago
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Novak Djokovic returned to Centre Court, one of the venues that has most defined his legendary career, desperately hoping that he had enough left in the tank to conjure up another miracle. His run to another grand slam semi-final at 39 years old was an immense achievement, but he wanted more. He always wants more. The question was whether his ageing legs would allow it against the best player in the world.
The answer to that question came swiftly and decisively. Jannik Sinner ensured that there would be no repeat of his defeat to Djokovic in their Australian Open semi-final at the beginning of the year, avenging that loss with a ruthless, efficient performance that moved him back into the Wimbledon final with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory. Sinner, the top seed, will face the second seed and recent French Open champion Alexander Zverev in the final after the German defeated Arthur Fery 7-6 (0), 6-2, 6-4.
This was another demonstration of Sinner’s spectacular, continuous serve improvement. He served magnificently throughout the match, and particularly the few times Djokovic created half-chances in his service games. He faced just one break point in the entire match, at 2-1 in the third set, which he saved with an ace down the T before firing down two more brilliant serves to escape the game with a hold.
Since his nervy, messy five-set first round win over Miomir Kecmanovic, Sinner had not dropped a set but he had also not faced another seeded player. Here he showed that, after that hiccup in Paris, he is again operating at an extremely high level. Sunday will be Sinner’s seventh grand slam final and he will attempt to win his fifth grand slam title.
Djokovic, meanwhile, had been through the wars to become the second-oldest Wimbledon semi-finalist in the open era after Ken Rosewall. He had already navigated three bruising four-set matches just to reach the quarter-finals, and then it took an epic fight in the final stages of his match against the third seed Félix Auger-Aliassime to continue advancing.
After spending five hours and 15 minutes on Centre Court on Tuesday, and struggling with various physical issues in the latter stages of major events over the past 18 months, this was a serious concern. Although Djokovic served well early on, he moved gingerly in the opening set, he was erratic on his groundstrokes and he was too passive. Once the ball was in play, Sinner completely overpowered Djokovic from the baseline.
After a series of confident, uneventful holds, Sinner took control of the set at 4-4 with a return game that turned into a masterclass demonstration of one of the best backhands of all time. He opened the game by snatching the first point with an excellent, point-ending backhand down the line, then he reached 15-30 by dragging himself back into the point with an excellent defensive backhand at full stretch. At 15-30, he forced himself inside the baseline and pounded a cross-court backhand to end the point. Sinner snatched the decisive break of the set on his second break point by flitting to his left and eviscerating a supreme backhand down-the-line passing shot by a helpless Djokovic. Moments later, he served out the set without issue.
As Djokovic tried to increase his intensity and force himself into the match, he gave himself a couple of half-chances on Sinner’s serve but he was flat and erratic on the few opportunities he generated. Up 2-1, 30-30 on Sinner’s serve, Djokovic easily tracked down a mediocre drop shot from Sinner and had a great chance on his backhand to put the ball away and reach break point. Instead, he pitifully netted his attempt at a counter drop shot, then he sprayed a backhand long on the subsequent point. Sinner then served himself out of trouble to hold.
A similar scenario occurred when Djokovic reached 0-30 on Sinner’s serve at 2-3, and a combination of excellent serving from Sinner and two dire errors from Djokovic scuppered the danger. Djokovic then immediately handed over the decisive break in set two with an error-strewn service game.
Once Sinner had broken serve to lead 4-3, only another physical episode similar to his collapse at the French Open would have stopped him advancing. He kept his foot on Djokovic’s neck until the end, continuing to serve spectacularly well on every decisive point until he was one win away from becoming a two-time Wimbledon champion.
Even now, after so many years, Djokovic’s mentality is unchanged. He enters these tournaments to win them and the fact that only two players, Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, have been able to consistently put him away at these stages, only further affirms his lofty ambitions.
However, at the end of his career, regardless of whether he manages to win his 25th grand slam title, he will reflect on and appreciate how legendary this stretch of his career is. A 39-year-old losing in straight sets to the world No 1, who has generally been so dominant over the rest of the tour this year, is completely logical. Everything else he has done in this tournament, as in six of his last seven grand slam events, is not.
