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Italy’s Jannik Sinner celebrates winning his semi final match against Serbia’s Novak Djokovic
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 battering on Friday.
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 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 match points.
Djokovic, bidding to reach his seventh successive Wimbledon final at the age of 38 looked defenceless in the opening two sets as 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 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.
Twice defending champion Alcaraz tamed the towering 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 on Friday.
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 for whoever he faces on Sunday.
“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.”
He certainly entertained a Centre Court crowd who lapped up a contest that pitted two hardened competitors with such contrasting styles against each other.
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.
“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. I will have time to think about Sunday, I’m going to watch the other semi-final as well and let’s see.”
