Sinner demolishes Djokovic to set up final against with Alcaraz

RNZ News

4 days ago

Italy's Jannik Sinner plays a forehand return to Serbia's Novak Djokovic during their men's singles semi-final tennis at Wimbledon 2025.
Photo:
AFP News
Top seed Jannik Sinner ensured
Novak Djokovic
will be absent from a Wimbledon men's singles final for the first time in eight years after handing the Serbian great a brutal Centre Court semi final battering.
Italian Sinner lost both his previous Wimbledon duels with Djokovic but a devastating display of power and precision proved too much for the seven-time champion who looked all of his 38 years as he subsided to a humbling 6-3 6-3 6-4 defeat.
In his first Wimbledon final the 23-year-old Sinner will face
Spain's Carlos Alcaraz
in a mouth-watering repeat of their recent French Open humdinger which the Italian lost after battling for more than five hours, squandering three championship points.
"I don't know what to expect, you saw the last final and you never know," Sinner, just the third Italian to reach a Wimbledon singles final and hoping to become his country's first champion, said on court.
"It's an honour to share the court with Carlos, we push each other to the limit. Hopefully it will be a good match like the last one, maybe not better, I don't think that's possible."
Djokovic, bidding to equal Roger Federer's men's record eight Wimbledon titles, had not lost a semi-final since Federer got the better of him in 2012.
But it seemed Father Time has finally caught up with the 24-time Grand Slam champion as he looked defenceless in the opening two sets as a sublime Sinner dropped only six points on serve.
He briefly stemmed the tide in the third set to move 3-0 ahead but it proved merely a blip for top seed Sinner who nipped any hope of a famous comeback in the bud.
Djokovic appeared to struggle physically in the closing stages after needing treatment and Sinner wasted no time in putting him out of his misery in less than two hours.
Sinner joined in the applause as Djokovic left Centre Court, giving the cheering crowd a thumbs up, with question marks about whether he will ever return.
Carlos Alcaraz of Spain reacts just after his semi-finals match against Taylor Fritz of United States on day twelfth of the Wimbledon 2025.
Photo:
DAISUKE URAKAMI
Earlier, the twice defending champion Carlos Alcaraz tamed Taylor Fritz to reach his third straight Wimbledon final, rediscovering his A-game when it mattered most to battle past the American in a 6-4 5-7 6-3 7-6(6) victory.
Eyeing a sixth Grand Slam title, the Spaniard was eventually too strong for the metronomically consistent Fritz, whose biggest weapons were still not damaging enough to unsettle the second seed under a fiery sun on Centre Court.
Alcaraz, who last tasted defeat at the Barcelona Open in April, has now won 24 matches in a row, an ominous statistic heading into the final.
"I'm not thinking about the winning streak or the results at all," the 22-year-old said on court after wrapping up victory when the world number five sent a forehand long to decide a tense fourth-set tiebreak.
"This is my dream - stepping on these beautiful courts and playing tennis in the most beautiful tournaments in the world. That's all I try to think at every tournament and why I try to bring the joy to the courts."
Fritz, who was bidding to become the first American man to reach the Wimbledon final since Andy Roddick in 2009, was so languid and smooth, emotionally and physically consistent from one point to the next.
Alcaraz, on the other hand, was a fidgeting bundle of energy, exploding into life at key moments, ripping top-spin forehands that drew gasps of admiration.
Fritz broke Alcaraz for the first and only occasion to take the second set as the Spaniard's intensity levels dropped, but the champion quickly regained the upper hand, breaking twice in the third and coming through the tiebreak to clinch victory.
Alcaraz now stands one match away from joining greats Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic as the only men to win three successive Wimbledon crowns in the professional era.
"Right now I don't want to think about Sunday," the Spaniard said.
"I just want to enjoy this moment and that I've got to a third final in a row."
- Reuters