Djokovic Snaps Sinner Streak in Melbourne Marathon

In the hush of early Saturday morning at the Australian Open, Novak Djokovic stared down a five-match losing streak to Jannik Sinner. The Rod Laver Arena lights cast long shadows as the 38-year-old dug in, refusing to let 2025’s semifinal heartbreaks repeat. He outlasted the two-time defending champion 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 over four hours and nine minutes, saving 16 of 18 break points to reach his 11th final in Melbourne and inch toward a record 25th Grand Slam title.

Opener echoes past defeats

Sinner seized control early, his composed baseline game firing 15 winners to Djokovic’s eight in the first set. The Italian won 90 percent of his first-serve points—18 of 20—dictating crosscourt exchanges that forced the Serb into defensive positions. This authority mirrored his prior victories, pulling the electric crowd into a tense rhythm as he took the lead 6-3.

Djokovic slipped two sets to one after the third, where Sinner‘s touch and underspin outmaneuvered him for a 6-4 edge. The weight of last year’s major semifinal exits at all four Slams pressed in, a drought unbroken since his US Open triumph in 2023. Yet the path to this stage—straight-set openers, a fourth-round walkover against Jakub Mensik, and Lorenzo Musetti‘s quarterfinal retirement up two sets—kept him fresher, fueling a refusal to fade.

Aggression flips the script

The second set ignited with Djokovic’s urgency, breaking at 3-1 on his fourth chance via a down-the-line forehand that forced Sinner wide. He leveled the match with renewed pinpoint shots, the crowd’s murmurs swelling as momentum shifted. This proactive surge shed the shadows of youth’s reign, where Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz had split the past eight majors and eyed a fourth straight final together—emulating only Djokovic and Rafael Nadal from Wimbledon 2011 to Roland Garros 2012.

In the fourth, Djokovic penetrated deeper, ramping forehand pace beyond 140 km/h with inside-out strikes that pinned his rival back. He saved two break points at 4-3, his returns biting to hold and force a decider. The arena pulsed under the lights, every rally amplifying the stakes as the Serb dragged the contest into uncharted territory for their rivalry.

Decider demands unbreakable will

The fifth set tested core steel, with Djokovic saving all eight break points, including three from 0/40 at 4-3. He broke in the seventh via a crosscourt backhand that sliced through Sinner’s setup, then held despite missing his first two match points as the Italian scrambled on backhands. Sealing it on the third, he dropped to his knees, his 101 tour titles and record 104 major wins—topping Roger Federer‘s 102—cementing a first five-setter since outlasting Francisco Cerundolo at Roland Garros in 2024.

This victory disrupts the script, denying Sinner and Alcaraz their consecutive finals run. Djokovic enters Sunday’s showdown with a 5-4 head-to-head edge over the Spaniard, including last year’s Melbourne quarters, and less court time overall. Alcaraz’s five-hour, 27-minute semifinal marathon against Alexander Zverev—the longest in Australian Open history—leaves him tested, while both semis going five sets for the first time since Wimbledon 2018 heightens the tournament’s lore. At 38, the No. 4-ranked Serb stands as the Open Era’s oldest finalist here, his adaptation on these hard courts priming a defiant bid for an 11th Melbourne crown.