Novak Djokovic is two wins at Roland Garros away from his 25th Grand Slam victory, but standing in his way in the final four is the world No.1, Jannik Sinner
Novak Djokovic says the key to Friday’s French Open semi-final is not how he is going to stop Jannik Sinner, but how the world number one is going to stop him. Djokovic reached his 51st grand slam semi with a clinical four-set win over German third seed Alexander Zverev on Wednesday night.
The 38-year-old remains firmly in the hunt for a record 25th major title and a fourth at Roland Garros. But standing in his way is Italian top seed Sinner, who has looked imperious in Paris this fortnight.
The 23-year-old is yet to drop a set this tournament, and has not even lost his serve since his opening round match against Arthur Rinderknech. He has won 19 consecutive matches at grand slams after recent triumphs at the US Open and Australian Open, and two more wins here would put him three quarters of the way towards a ‘Sinner slam’.
Djokovic executed his gameplan against Zverev to perfection, regularly dragging the 28-year-old into the net and then passing or lobbing him, but Sinner is too quick and too smart to fall for that.
“I know what to expect from Jannik,” said Djokovic. “He’s going to come out and play at a very high level, as he did basically every tournament that he played in the last year and a half. I don’t expect anything less from him.
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“But these kind of match-ups and challenges extract the best out of me. Playing best-of-five, late stages of a grand slam against number one in the world, you can’t get more motivated than that for me at this age.
“That’s how I see it now. How am I going to stop him? I don’t think about that. I think about how am I going to execute what I want on the court and feel how I want to feel. That’s where my thoughts are going.
“Of course I’m going to sit with my team and think about it, work on the practice court a little bit on specifics that will be the case when I play Jannik. I’ll do my best to get ready.”
Djokovic had endured one of the worst runs his entire career when he lost three straight matches before limbering up for Roland Garros in Geneva, where he won his 100th ATP title. Grand slams clearly still bring out the best in the Serbian, even if he has not won one since the 2023 US Open.
Sinner said: “He has shown now in the last period that he is back to the level. He plays very, very well, so it’s going to be quite tactical but very, very difficult. He’s such an experienced player, 24 grand slams. I think that says everything.”
There are two Italian men in the semi-finals for the first time at a grand slam in the Open era, with Lorenzo Musetti facing Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champion.
Further Italian success arrived in the mixed doubles final on Thursday, when Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori beat American duo Taylor Townsend and Evan King 6-4 6-2.