Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner defeated defending champion and top seed Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open semifinal in Melbourne on Friday, handing the world’s top-ranked male player his first defeat at the tournament since 2018.
Italy's Jannik Sinner greets Serbia's Novak Djokovic after victory in their men's singles semi-final ... [+]
The 22-year-old, who is ranked fourth in the world, ended Djokovic’s dominant grip on the Australian Open crown with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-3 victory.
Sinner broke Djokovic’s serve twice in the first set, repeated the feat in the second set and came close to finishing the game off in the third set before missing a match point.
For Djokovic—who holds a record 24 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, including 10 Australian Open titles—the semi-final loss was his first defeat at the tournament since losing to South Korean Chung Hyeon in the fourth round in 2018.