Veteran tennis player and 10-time Champion Novak Djokovic would be facing Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open Semifinal.
Djokovic reached his record-extending 48th Grand Slam semifinal by beating Fritz 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in 3¾ hours.
Their match started late in the heat of the afternoon because US Open champion Coco Gauff’s win over Marta Kostyuk took more than three hours.
Speaking about his assumed advantage, Djokovic said.
“What kind of advantage will I have? We have two days. It’s not much of an advantage that I see there,” he said. “Plenty of time for whoever wins that match tonight to recover.”
Since losing to Djokovic in last year’s Wimbledon semifinals, Sinner has won two of his three matches against the 24-time major champion.
“I’m really lucky to face him again [in] one of the biggest tournaments in the world,” he said. “Happy I can play the No. 1 in the world. He won here sometimes!”
Djokovic is on a 33-match winning streak at the Australian Open — a tournament record he shares with his childhood inspiration, Monica Seles.
The first game took 16 minutes and the first set lasted 1 hour, 24 minutes. Fritz got the first break of serve and maintained it to win the second set.
“Credit to him for playing really well. You could see that he had a clear game plan. He was really sharp,” Djokovic said. “So it was a struggle for me to play the first couple of sets.
“In the third, things started to come together. I wasn’t serving well at all first two sets, and then third and fourth, great.”
