Shortly after Novak Djokovic won his first ticket to the semi-finals of the 2024 Australian Open men's singles, his opponent has also been identified. That was Jannik Sinner, who caused him a lot of trouble in late 2023, early 2024.
Sinner - the 4th seed, met with Andrey Rublev the 5th seed in the semi-final. With their position on the ATP rankings, experts certainly expect a dramatic and long-term match.
People are even afraid that the fans present at Rod Laver Stadium will have to sit until dawn (local time) to know who will win the ticket to continue.
Fortunately for them, the match ended at 1:22 am (local time). However, the 3 sets of the match were not boring.
There is a certain balance of the indicators of the two players breaking apart on the ATP rankings. They have had 10 direct serve-to-point serves, with a serve-to- serve ratio of 1 70%, the scoring ratio from return 1 and 24%, and have 34 winning points, even double errors are only 1 time (3/2).
However, the factor that made the difference in the match was a few decisive indicators. First, while Sinner scored 52% on second passes, Rublev's was just 37%. Second, in the 2nd returns, the Italian scored 63%, while the Russian opponent scored only 48%.
And third, while Sinner converted the 29% chance to win a break, successfully saving all 8 times facing the risk of being assigned, Rubev failed to convert any opportunities and saved 5/7 times facing a break.
Another point is the problem of Rublev's un Improved career - his psychology and ability to control emotions. Strangely, after going through 5 stressful sets to overcome the home team's tennis player Alex de Minaur - overcoming even the pressure from Australian fans, he lost himself at important moments.
Sinner's fitness was somewhat better after going through 4 rounds and finishing in just 3 sets (Rublev had 2 matches with 5 sets), but in the match, the 22-year-old Italian tennis player also had some problems with his ribs.
That seemed to be the reason why the second set had to last longer, but he ended up beating the 26-year-old in the tie-break.
As a result, Sinner won after 3 sets with the scores of 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3 after 2 hours and 41 minutes. Sinner will meet Djokovic in the first semi-final and have the opportunity to challenge the defending champion.
Sinner and Djokovic have met consecutively in late 2023, at the ATP Finals (2 matches), the Davis Cup finals (1 singles match, 1 doubles match) and he won 3 victories.
In the women's singles event, the first semi-final pair has also been determined. Coco Gauff (4) and Aryna Sabalenka (2) will compete for a ticket to the final after defeating Mart Kostyuk and Barbora Krejcikova.
