Yesterday’s Australian Open men’s singles semi-final day was huge where one of the best and legendary grand slam champs was out of the main event by surprise by a rising star, while a seasoned finalist will hopefully get his hands on another grand slam title v a first time challenger for Norman Brookes Challenge Cup come tomorrow night at Rod Laver Arena. But for now, the women’s final will be decided tonight between Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) v Qinwen Zheng (China).
Jannik Sinner stunned Novak Djokovic from the beginning where he was too good with an easy 2-1 lead. Although the Serbian might have got one back at the tiebreak, but then it proved to be such a tall order to crawl back when Sinner at last has dethroned the veteran in the end with the win. Novak has been an top player as always but yesterday wasn’t his day when he wasn’t equipped to handle Sinner mightily on-court that cost him big time before he was finally caught up as he won’t be able to defend his crown and will have to wait until 2025 to get it back. On the other hand, Sinner has been simply outstanding where he will now be on course to hopefully win his first grand slam title at age 22. He was so quick to get off the mark before he took his time to expose the long-form skillsets of Djokovic, having been denied a straight sets route but eventually got away towards the finish line at last in the fourth set. He made it to the Wimbledon semi-final last year as well as winning the Davis Cup for Italy, what’s next? The Australian Open Final. Let’s see if he can go all the way tomorrow night.
Meanwhile, 2 x AO semi finalist Alexander Zverev also fired off really well with a 2-0 lead v Daniil Medvedev. However, Medvedev turned himself around in the toughest of the challenges where he won back-to-back tiebreaker sets before he completed an incredible turnaround at the 5th & final set decider for the win after 4 hours & 18 minutes. Zverev thought he had it at one stage but lost his way against a resurgent Medvedev during the second half there. He’s had an amazing summer here that began with the United Cup win including a mighty doubles effort straight after playing singles for the best of his country (Team Germany) before he continues to shine up in the main draw up until this point & unfortunately he just could not pull off v such a opponent who has been to handful of finals more than him. And last but not least, it’s 3 x AO finalist Danill Medvedev from Russia where might had struggled earlier on despite a great start. But he never gave up as the game goes on where Medvedev turned out to be the better player than Zverev when it comes with the long-form game from two escaping tiebreakers to an unbelievable finish for the win. It’s been a long time coming since he first won the 2021 US Open where he defeated Djokovic in straight sets as he won’t be facing him this time like it was two years ago here that went past 1am but he will instead v first-time finalist in Jannik Sinner in the hope of finally winning one as the next AO champ at RLA.
