Instead of an everyday victory for Australian Open king Novak Djokovic, it turned out to be a historic fiasco. And Daniil Medvedev confirmed the tacit title of king of comebacks on Australian soil in 2024. But first things first.
The Incredible Sinner knocked the king off the throne
In recent years, the Australian Open has become a real sandbox for Djokovic. It’s no joke, but Novak has won the tournament 10 times, a record since 2008. And in the last five years, his hegemony has only been interrupted by Spaniard Rafael Nadal (in 2022).
This time the Serbian evil genius was Jannik Sinner. The Italian is the fastest growing tennis player of the last year. Sinner’s incredible progress was evident at the end of the season, when he almost reached the ATP Finals. There, during the tournament, Yannick confidently defeated Djokovic himself, but could not repeat this trick in the final.
This time, Sinner was completely ready. Until the semi-final, he did not give up any sets to his opponents. Andrei Rublev also suffered at the hands of the Italian, losing for the 10th time in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament.
In general, Sinner made a bid from the first set, which he won with an indecent score of 6:1. The defeat against the honorable Serb continued in the second match – 6:2. For the first time since 2005 (Marat Safin then tried), Djokovic won 3 games or less in two sets at TBS!
In the third set, Djokovic came alive and came back to play in the tiebreaker. It seemed that under the pressure of the main predator of Australian tennis, Yannick could weaken, but Sinner calmly led the matter to victory. After reloading, the Italian finished off his opponent – 6:3!
After the match, Djokovic admitted that this tournament did not work for him. In fact, it’s hard to disagree with Novak. Only in the match against Adrian Mannarino, when the Serbian gave his opponent two shuttlecocks, did he look like a real machine. In other fights, Novak had problems. However, it is too early to retire Djokovic. We succeeded, we know it.
“I still have high hopes for the other Grand Slams, the Olympics and the tournaments that I will participate in. It is only the beginning of the season, although it is unusual. It was incredibly nice to start the season with victories at Grand Slam tournaments.” and not losing in the semi-final and final of the Australian Open. But now everything is a little different. But it’s like that. This does not necessarily mean the beginning of the end, as some would like. to be,” Djokovic said at a press conference.
Medvedev is Zverev’s main nightmare
In the second semi-final, bookmakers favored Medvedev. Generally this is expected. Daniil is higher than Zverev in the world rankings, and in relations between the guys the Russian has a clear advantage. Before this match, Medvedev and Zverev met 18 times, Daniil won in 11 cases, Alexander won in 7 cases. At the same time, it is curious that Medvedev and Zverev never crossed paths at Grand Slam tournaments.
Sasha, after an injury at Roland Garros, which erased six months of his career, got back into excellent shape, Carlos Alcaraz will not let you lie. And in the match against Medvedev, the German won the first two sets – 7:5, 6:3. Daniil looked lost and Zverev performed real miracles. While the Russian timidly responded to his opponent’s attacks, Sasha placed the balls in the corners, allowing no one to doubt his superiority.
It looked like Medvedev was going to suffer a painful three-set defeat. But Daniil recovered in an incredible way during the third match. At the same time, Zverev was starting to get nervous. Even in the second set, he managed to fight hard with his father in the stands, and after a lost tiebreaker, the initiative passed to the Russian.
It seemed that with each subsequent match Medvedev literally took strength from Zverev. The Russians acted better and better, and the Germans acted worse and worse. Medvedev also won the fourth set in the tiebreaker, although he must have been nervous: Zverev made two serves with a score of 5:4. And in the fifth set, everything started to slip out of Zverev’s hands. Sasha gave up – 3:6.
It is curious that Medvedev won a match in five sets for only the fourth time in his career, losing in the first two matches. The previous comeback also took place at the Australian Open: in the second round, Daniil defeated Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori in five sets.
But what we absolutely have to give Daniil credit for in this AO draw is the show he puts on. Russian Of the six fights, he only had one in three sets, two in two sets and three in three sets. The main question is whether there is enough “gasoline” for such a Sinner, who marches like a cavalry at the Australian Open? In any case, it will be very interesting.
Anton Mozgovoy, Athletistic
Source: Sport
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
