Novak Djokovic vs. Jannik Sinner is the first semifinal duel of the 2024 Australian Open. The match will take place on Thursday night (Eastern Time) at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne
Novak Djokovic is the main favorite to win the 2024 Australian Open, and so far, he’s been showing why that is the case. However, in the semifinal, he’s facing a guy who’s in great form right now. Jannik Sinner made his way to the AO24 Final 4 by winning each of his five matches by 3-0.
Odds provided by Sports Odds Direct:
Novak Djokovic -210
Jannik Sinner +180
Novak Djokovic is turning 37 in a few months’ time, meaning that he probably won’t get too many attempts to cement his GOAT status. He’s already the player with the most Grand Slam titles (24) and is the record-holder for most wins at the Australian Open (10).
This guy loves playing in Australia, the evidence being that he won each of the last four Australian Open tournaments that he took part in. As a reminder, he had to miss the 2022 tournament for not being vaccinated against COVID-19. But even for that tournament, he was the No. 1 favorite.
He’s favored to win the 2024 Australian Open as well. However, he hasn’t been too impressive so far. Sure, he did win every single match, but we saw him lose a set in three of his five matches. Most recently, it happened in the duel with Taylor Fritz on Tuesday morning.
It took him nearly four hours to beat the American player who’s sitting in 12th place in the ATP Rankings. Now, he’s supposed to play against a guy who’s fourth in the rankings.
The last time he played against Djokovic, Sinner won 2-1. It happened at the Davis Cup last November. Ten days earlier, he did the same at the ATP Finals. However, neither of those tournaments are as important for Djokovic as the Australian Open.
Nevertheless, the two wins must give Sinner a lot of confidence ahead of the AO24 semifinal. Another thing giving him confidence is that he’s been playing great tennis since coming to Melbourne. He’s won every single 2024 Australian Open match in straight sets.
The most impressive thing is that he’s faced a couple of really tough opponents so far. In his previous match, for example, he defeated the ATP No. 5 Andrey Rublev. It took him just 2:41 hours to win.
