Jannik Sinner pulled off a massive upset as he beat top seed and 24-time Grand Slam winner, Novak Djokovic, on Friday to reach the 2024 Australian Open men's singles final.
The 22-year-old Italian put on a stunning display in Melbourne to overcome the 10-time Australian Open champion 6-1 6-2 6-7 (6-8) 6-3. Defeat for Djokovic brings an end to the remarkable 33-match winning streak that he held in the competition, going all the way back to 2018.
This was the third meeting at a Grand Slam between the pair, as they faced off in the last two Wimbledon Championships, with Djokovic winning both matches.
Sinner opened the first set by going after the 36-year-old and broke him at the earliest opportunity. The fourth seed came close to breaking Djokovic again in the Serbian's next service game, but the reigning champion was able to hold him off.
However, Sinner landed another break in the first set to go up 5-1, before serving out the first set 6-1 in just 35 minutes. The Italian's serve and return of serve was proving to be too much for Djokovic as the pace of the first set was causing him to be way off with his timing.
The second set mirrored the first as Sinner broke Djokovic early on in the set with the world number one still committing unforced errors. The Italian kept hold of his serve for the remainder of the set to clinch it 6-2.
The third set in the contest was a much tighter affair as Djokovic's performance levels increased significantly and both players ended up holding serve to make it 6-6 and force a tie-break.
The two players went back and forth in the tie-break and it eventually led to Sinner having a match point at 6-5. However, he was unable to return Djokovic's serve successfully, and the reigning champion pushed ahead and won the tie-break 8-6.
Sinner looked to bounce back in the early stages of the fourth set and he nearly broke Djokovic in the Serbian's first service game, but he was unable to do so as he blew three break points. The Italian eventually landed another break in Djokovic's next service game to go 3-1 in front despite being 40-0 down at one point in the game.
The fourth seed maintained his composure for the rest of the fourth set as he kept hold of his serve to win the deciding set 6-3 and close out the match.
Sunday's match will be the first Grand Slam final of Sinner's career and is now already his best performance at a major championship.
Sinner spoke on his victory afterwards, commenting: "It was a was a very, very tough match. I started off really well. For two sets I felt like he (Djokovic) was not feeling that great on court, so I just tried to keep pushing."
The finalist added: "Confidence from the end of last season has, for sure, kept the belief I can play against the best players in the world and I'm really happy I can play in my first final."
Djokovic reflected on his shocking defeat to Sinner, saying: "I guess this is one of the worst Grand Slam matches I've ever played. Not a very pleasant feeling playing this way, but at the same time, credit to him for doing everything better than me, in every aspect of the game."
Sinner will go up against third seed, Daniil Medvedev, in Sunday's final, after the Russian produced a stunning comeback to beat Germany's Alexander Zverev in the other semi-final on Friday.
Zverev won the first two sets 7-5 6-3 before Medvedev made adjustments and began to find more rhythm to his game. The third set went to a tiebreaker with Medvedev winning it 7-6 (7-4), before the fourth set also went to a tie-break and saw Medvedev again come out on top, taking the set 7-6 (7-5).
The energy levels of Zverev began to drop in the fifth set and after both players managed to hold in their first two service games, Medvedev struck the crucial break in the fifth game to go 3-2 ahead. The third seed kept his serve and broke Zverev once more to clinch the set 6-3 and complete a miraculous victory.
Medvedev spoke afterwards on having to go the distance to beat Zverev, stating: "Before, my statistic on five-set matches was not that good and physically and mentally it's tough. Many times in the fifth I was not strong enough, so I'm happy."
Having been runner-up twice at the Australian Open before, Medvedev will be hoping he can finally win in Melbourne and add to his one Grand Slam title, the 2021 US Open.
Medvedev will head into the final against Sinner as the slight favourite due to his experience of getting to the latter stages of Grand Slams. However, Medvedev has had to play three five-set matches at this year's Australian Open, whilst Sinner has not played any, so the Italian should be in better physical condition for Sunday's contest.
This will be the first Australian Open men's singles final since 2005 to feature none of Djokovic, Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer.
