For all of the drama of Week 1, the business end of the Australian Open men’s singles tournament has been a bit of a dud. There were 28 five-set matches through the first three rounds. There hasn’t been a single one since.
In fact, only four total sets of tennis were played on semifinal Friday. Novak Djokovic retired after losing the first set against Alexander Zverev and then Jannik Sinner defeated Ben Shelton 7-6(2), 6-2, 6-2.
That Djokovic called it quits was not an overly shocking development. The 37-year-old Serb struggled with a right-leg issue during his quarterfinal victory over Carlos Alcaraz, and two full days off ended up not being enough to recover. Djokovic, a 10-time Aussie Open champion, lost the tiebreaker 7-5 when he dumped an easy forehand volley into the net–after which he immediately retired.
“I actually thought it was quite a high-level first set,” Zverev commented. “But of course there is some difficulties and the longer you continue playing, then maybe the worse it gets. In the tie-break, he was maybe not moving as well as in the entire first set. But I thought we had extremely long rallies, extremely difficult, physical rallies. In the tie-break I did see him struggle maybe a bit more.”
Zverev’s reward is a third Grand Slam final appearance. He is still seeking his first such title, having lost the 2020 U.S. Open final (Dominic Thiem) and the 2024 French Open final (Carlos Alcaraz) in five sets.
Now it is the world No. 1 who is standing in the German’s way of major glory after Sinner mostly rolled over Shelton. It was a tense opening set in the second semifinal, however. Shelton broke the Italian twice and even served for it at 6-5, but he failed to convert either of two set points on his own serve. The traffic was one-way from there, although Sinner did appear to have some cramping issues in the third set.
It hardly mattered.
“It was a very tough first set but very crucial,” Sinner said. “I felt he was not serving at his best today. The percentage was not where he would have wanted it at. I think we both returned better than we served. First sets are always very important. It gives you a lot of confidence and there was a lot of tension for both of us. I am very happy with how I handled the situation today.
“I had a lot of tension today, some cramps. He was also suffering a little today with his legs, so I tried to move him around and stay more aggressive, which helped a lot. These matches can go very long. Three sets, two hours and 30 minutes is quite a time, so I am happy to finish in three. I am happy to be back in the final and we will see what happens on Sunday.”
nice one, Sinner