Novak Djokovic beats Alexander Zverev to set up a semifinal showdown with Jannik Sinner
Advertisement
Djokovic proved too much for No. 3 seed Zverev, a man who's a decade younger and was last year's runner-up at Roland-Garros, winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 to set up a semifinal showdown against No. 1 Jannik Sinner.
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
Earlier Wednesday, Sinner continued his overpowering run through the bracket by dismissing Alexander Bublik, 6-1, 7-5, 6-0. Sinner not only hasn't dropped a set so far, but he has ceded a total of only 36 games through five matches.
So Friday will bring a tantalizing showdown between the player many consider the top player in tennis history, Djokovic, and the player who is at the top of the men's game at the moment, Sinner. Djokovic and Sinner are tied 4-4 in their head-to-head series, but Sinner has won the last three matchups.
Advertisement
No one has spent more weeks at No. 1 in the rankings than Djokovic. No one has won more major championships or reached more major semifinals than his total that now stands at 51 after becoming the second-oldest man to get that far in Paris.
Sinner, 23, is a three-time Grand Slam champion. That includes last year's US Open and this year's Australian Open, so his unbeaten streak at majors is now at 19 matches. He's also won his last 26 sets at those events.
'He's playing fast. He's playing smart,' Bublik said. 'He's in another dimension with all the aspects of the game.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
How to watch 2025 French Open men's semifinals for free: Schedule, streaming
New York Post may be compensated and/or receive an affiliate commission if you click or buy through our links. Featured pricing is subject to change. The French Open semifinals wrap up today, June 6, with two matches in the men's bracket. The day will start with a match featuring the defending French Open champion Carlos Alcaraz, who is ranked No. 2, going up against the No. 8 seed Lorenzo Musetti. Musetti is a clay court specialist who should have been defaulted in his quarterfinal match against Frances Tiafoe for kicking a ball that accidentally hit a line judge. He only received a code violation during the incident. Later in the day, No. 1 Jannik Sinner will face off against No. 6 Novak Djokovic. Djokovic is a three-time French Open champion, but Sinner will advance to the first French Open final of his career should he win today's match. Sinner already has one grand slam win under his belt this year as the reigning Australian Open champion. French Open TV schedule for June 6: No. 8 Lorenzo Musetti vs. No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz — 8:30 a.m. ET (TNT/truTV) (TNT/truTV) No. 1 Jannik Sinner vs. No. 6 Novak Djokovic — 1 p.m. ET (TNT/truTV) How to watch the French Open for free: If you don't have cable, you'll need a live TV streaming service to stream the French Open for free. One option we love is DIRECTV, which comes with five days free and starts at $59.99/month, with plenty of subscription options that include TNT and truTV. Other ways to stream the French Open: You can also watch every match of the French Open on Max. Max starts at $9.99/month, but you can also subscribe to one of our favorite streaming bundles and get Max with Disney+ and Hulu for 16.99/month. Why Trust Post Wanted by the New York Post This article was written by Angela Tricarico, Commerce Writer/Reporter for Post Wanted Shopping and New York Post's streaming property, Decider. Angela keeps readers up to date with cord-cutter-friendly deals, and information on how to watch your favorite sports teams, TV shows, and movies on every streaming service. Not only does Angela test and compare the streaming services she writes about to ensure readers are getting the best prices, but she's also a superfan specializing in the intersection of shopping, tech, sports, and pop culture. Prior to joining Decider and The New York Post in 2023, she wrote about streaming and consumer tech at Insider Reviews
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Why Novak Djokovic can beat Jannik Sinner – despite not getting a break point against him in six sets
ROLAND GARROS, PARIS — Novak Djokovic has already done something borderline ridiculous at this French Open. He's made the semifinals of a second consecutive Grand Slam, this one as a 38-year-old. He's gotten here by pummelling opponents far younger than he is, dropping a single set in his five matches so far. On Wednesday, he beat Alexander Zverev, the current world No. 3 and last year's runner-up here, with a display of aggression, touch and dexterity. Advertisement It took him a set to find his feet after losing his serve in the opening game, but from there Djokovic conducted a surgical masterpiece, twisting Zverev this way and that, exhausting him into errors and taking out his legs to extract the power from his serve as night fell and it got harder and harder to generate pace on the ball. The borderline has been crossed. Now comes the ridiculous. If Djokovic wants to win a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title, he must beat Jannik Sinner, the world No. 1 who has won six straight sets against him without facing a break point, in their Friday semifinal. If he can somehow do that, he is likely to have to topple defending champion Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday — unless Lorenzo Musetti, who is having the best clay-court season of his career, can produce an upset earlier in the day. If that all somehow came to pass, Djokovic would have beaten the world No. 3, No. 1 and No. 2 in successive matches. No man has ever beaten the top three players in the sport en route to a Grand Slam title. There's no reason to think it might be possible over the next few days at Roland Garros, except one: it's Novak Djokovic. So here's why he can win — and feel free to get yourself a stiff drink before reading any further. It's important to explain why there is no reason to think it is possible other than the fact that this is Djokovic, because Sinner might well sweep him off the court tonight. The Italian has owned Djokovic on court for a year and a half. Their career head-to-head is 4-4, but Sinner has won the three most recent meetings and four out of five. His victory over Djokovic in the 2023 Davis Cup semifinals, a match where he saved three match points, was the catalyst for his run to the top of men's tennis. Sinner also beat him at the Australian Open two months later, on the way to his first Grand Slam title, and then did it again at the Shanghai Masters in October. Djokovic has arguably the best return of serve in tennis history. Only Andre Agassi's is comparable. Yet in those two matches last year against Sinner, Djokovic didn't earn a single break-point opportunity over the combined six sets, one of which he won in a tiebreak. At this tournament, Sinner has destroyed everyone he has played. He has met opponents who play like he does, but worse. They see they can't hit through him, so try to hit harder. It doesn't go well. This means that not only is he 15 years younger than Djokovic, he's also extremely well-rested. Sinner has only spent eight hours, 35 minutes on the court in his five matches. Djokovic is over 12 hours in his. Advertisement But that's the case for the defense. Here is why Djokovic can win, and it starts with the clay. Djokovic has won three titles here, which isn't many compared to his 10 in Melbourne or his seven at Wimbledon. But he had the bad luck of playing at the same time as Rafael Nadal, who won 14 French Open titles and essentially shut down Roland Garros for everybody else for the best part of his 20-year career. Djokovic has made the quarterfinals more often here than at any other major, and he beat Nadal on the way to two of those three titles. Sinner? He's never made the final in Paris. Clay is supposedly his worst surface, recent evidence notwithstanding. Alcaraz made him look like he was playing on an ice-rink in the second set of their final on clay in Rome last month, though a good chunk of that has to be attributed to a lack of match practice after his three-month anti-doping ban. The younger guy should also have the better legs and lungs, but there have long been questions about Sinner's endurance in five-set matches. He's just 6-9 in fifth sets and hasn't gone the distance in a match since Wimbledon last July. No one ever asks that question about Djokovic, at least not in about 15 years. Djokovic has done ridiculous things at Roland Garros against players two tennis generations younger as recently as last summer. In the Olympics gold-medal match, he beat Alcaraz 7-6(3), 7-6(2) over three hours of the most scintillating tennis of the year. Alcaraz is better on clay than Sinner. Sinner's most potent weapons on the hard courts, where he has dominated Djokovic, are the velocity of his groundstrokes and the atomic action and laser-like precision of his serves. The clay slightly slows those balls, giving the Serbian a little more opportunity to get into points. There's only one form of tennis kryptonite that Sinner responds to: variety. Opponents have to move him, not just laterally but also vertically and diagonally. And they have to do it all match long. For about 45 minutes of their quarterfinal on Wednesday, Alexander Bublik caused Sinner some real problems, coming very close to stealing the second set. Advertisement How? 'He mixed up the game a little bit more,' Sinner said. 'Dropshots — amazing.' Nobody talks much about Djokovic's drop shots, which are some of the finest in the men's game, but Zverev is going to be seeing them in his sleep for a week. He chased down three from the back of the court during one 41-shot rally in the fourth set when he was pushing to draw even and push the match to a fifth. He had two, perhaps three, opportunities to hit an overhead and put the ball away. He couldn't do it. Bublik hit 37 drop shots in his four-set upset of Jack Draper, the world No. 5, in round four. Djokovic hit 32 against Zverev, including the side-spinner that got him to match point. Sinner himself has begun to hit a pretty good drop shot, which is especially effective inside-out on the forehand side, when he has an opponent pinned deep. It's just not as good as Djokovic's. So, Djokovic has to play like he did against Zverev, just even better, and do it for hours, on the clay, at night. Not exactly a small task, but Djokovic has been wearing a jacket this week with a small gold-coloured patch on it. It's a symbol of the gold medal he won here last summer — his little reminder that he can pull off the impossible.
Forbes
3 hours ago
- Forbes
French Open: Aryna Sabalenka Says Title Would Mean The World To Her
PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 05: Aryna Sabalenka gives an on-court interview after her victory over Iga ... More Swiatek of Poland in the Women's Singles Semi Final match on Day Twelve of the 2025 French Open at Roland Garros on June 05, 2025 in Paris, France. (Photo by) World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka said winning the French Open title would 'mean the world' to her and her team after the Belarusian downed Iga Swiatek to reach her first final on the Parisian clay. Sabalenka is known as a hardcourt specialist, having won three Grand Slam titles on this surface – Australian Open (2023, 2024) and U.S. Open (2024). But the 27-year-old proved on Thursday that she can put up a challenge on clay after defeating claycourt queen Swiatek 7-6(1) 4-6 6-0 in the semifinals, ending the Pole's reign in the French capital, where she has won four titles. "I'm super happy with the win today and beating Iga at Roland Garros," Sabalenka said after her win. "It's just something unbelievable and something I'm super proud of, and yeah, just happy to get through this difficult match." Sabalenka needed two hours and 19 minutes to snap four-time champion Swiatek's 26-match winning streak at the event. Her victory over Swiatek was her tour-leading 40th main-draw win of this season, and she has won her last five Grand Slam semifinal matches. In Saturday's final, Sabalenka will face second-ranked Coco Gauff of the United States, as the World No. 1 and 2 players face off in a French Open final for the first time in more than a decade. Sabalenka and Gauff have a totally deadlocked head-to-head. They are 5-5 overall and 1-1 at Grand Slam events. Top-ranked Sabalenka knows she would need to play her best tennis and work for the title in Saturday's blockbuster clash. "It's going to mean everything to me and my team,' Sabalenka said when asked about the prospect of winning her maiden French Open title. 'Because I have to say that almost like the whole life I've been told where [clay] is not my thing and then I didn't have any confidence. "And in the past I don't know how many years, we've been able to develop my game so much, so I feel really comfortable on this surface and actually enjoy playing on clay. If I'll be able to get this trophy, it's just going to mean the world for us,' Aryna Sabalenka concluded.
