​Novak Djokovic stopped in the semifinals of the 2024 Australian Open after losing in four sets to Yannick Sinner. The Serbian has not lost in Melbourne for 2195 days, and at the press conference he tried to explain what happened at Rod Laver Arena.

>> Novak Djokovic loses after six years at Australian Open – Yannick Sinner’s career win

Novak Djokovic after defeat with Yannick Sinner: “We don’t have time to talk about everything that went wrong”

Nole explained that he was not satisfied with the level of his play at the Grand Slam tournament after Antipos, and acknowledged the advantage of his opponent in Friday’s match (6-1, 6-2, (6)6-7, 6-3 for Grishnyk).

“I want to congratulate Sinner for a great match and tournament, he deserves to be in the final, he was clearly better than me today.

I was shocked at my level. In a negative way. In the first few sets, I didn’t do much. I think this is one of the worst Grand Slam matches in my career as far as I can remember. It’s not a very nice feeling to play like this.

At the same time, it’s also a credit to him because he did everything better than me in every aspect of the game. I tried, I fought, I raised my level a bit in the third set, I saved a match point, I played well in the tiebreak.

In the fourth set, it was very difficult to lose that game, I was leading 40-0 at 1-2. In general, the level of my tennis was not high. In those moments you try to find peace, to lift your spirits and your game, I tried and the crowd was great, it was fair to both players, me and Yannick, so congratulations to him.

I didn’t play too well throughout the tournament. Maybe some matches, like the Mannarino one, were okay, but I didn’t play at the level I wanted to, like I usually do in Australia.

It surprised me a bit because I didn’t think it would be that bad in the first few sets. On the other hand, I didn’t feel like I was on the court in this tournament. You can say that the semi-final is a great result, but I always expect to give my best. It was supposed to happen today.

This statistic speaks volumes (he didn’t have any break balls – no). It is presented very precisely, it is difficult to describe everything. We don’t have that much time. There are a lot of negative things I did on the pitch today and I’m not happy. Return, court movement, forehand, backhand, everything was below par.

He dominated the games on serve. Obviously, if you serve well and don’t face break points, you can play with your opponent’s mind, you can put more pressure on the return, you can hit without worries, congratulations to him, he played a flawless match” – Novak Djokovicat the press conference.

>> Yannick Sinner on defeating Novak Djokovic at Australian Open 2024: “I learned a lot from him”

Know:

• Djokovic, widely regarded as the best returner in history, had no break points in his match against Sinner. This is the first time in the career of the Serb that this has happened at the Grand Slam tournaments.

• Qualifying for the 2024 Australian Open final is Yannick Sinner’s best Grand Slam result. He also reached the semifinals of Wimbledon 2023 (he was even defeated by Djokovic).

• Sinner closed the gap in head-to-head matches with Novak Djokovic – the Serb leads 4-3. Yannick’s previous victories came at the end of the 2023 season: at the Turin Champions (at the group stage) and in the semi-finals of the Davis Cup (after saving three match points).

• Yannick Sinner became the first Italian in history to reach the Australian Open final.

• In the Australian Open 2024 grand final, Yannick Sinner will meet the winner of the match between Daniil Medvedev (3rd favorite) and Oleksandr Zverev (6). In meetings with the Italian, the Russian leads with a score of 6-3 (Sinner won the last three matches), and with the German – 4-1.

• At the age of 36 (he will be 37 on May 22), Djokovic holds the record for most titles won in Melbourne: 10 (in 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023).

Match statistics Yannick Sinner – Novak Djokovic:

Aces: 9-7

Double faults: 1-4

Points won on the first serve: 53/64 (83%) – 53/79 (67%)

Points won on the second serve: 29/46 (63%) – 17/37 (46%)

Break points saved: 0/0 – 6/11

Winning throws: 31-32

Unforced errors: 28-54

Points won near the net: 15/18 (83%) – 18/23 (78%)

Total points: 128-98

Duration of the match: 3 hours 25 minutes.

Yannick Sinner’s path to the 2024 Australian Open final

Round I: 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 vs Botik van de Zandschulp (59 ATP)

II round: 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 against Jesper De Jong (161 ATP)

Round III: 6-0, 6-1, 6-3 vs Sebastian Baez (29 ATP)

Optimi: 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 against Karen Khachanov (15 ATP)

Quarters: 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-3 against Andrii Rublev (5 ATP)

Semifinals: 6-1, 6-2, (6)6-7, 6-3 vs. Novak Djokovic (1 ATP).